The Effects of Special Relativity on Sublimation
by DiamondNinja914
Summary: When the Todoroki and Yaoyorozu families arrange to marry their children off to strangers, the two students seek alternative solutions. Dealing with Endeavor, bratty basic white boys, teachers who assume the worst, and overly nosy classmates could eventually bring two people together pretty darn well. Very long, definitely TodoMomo endgame. T- language, vague suggestive comments.
1. Metathesiophobia

A/N: Hello! This one has spoilers from chapter 67 onward, but takes place around chapter 130. I may reference later events lightly, but I won't spoil anything except for- chapter 100 spoilers inbound- the fact that the kids move to the school dormitories later, as it's too important to the setting. Other than that, you should be clear. If I spoil something, someone let me know and I'll fix it.

Chapter One: Metasthesiophobia

It was a Friday afternoon in September when Steve visited the U.A. training arena. The doors were propped open to let the new autumn air wash out the scents of sweat, and the sounds of birds chirping intermingled with the yells of the students sparring inside.

Despite the predictable outcome of most of the matches, Steve sat on the edge of his seat, mesmerized. He spoke in broken Japanese and kept smoothing his hands over his glazed, ashen hair. His suit was gray and he had a smile on his face like he was watching an action movie. The reality of what he was watching was far less theatrical.

Momo Yaoyorozu was beating the crap out of Shouto Todoroki with a bo staff, and she'd been doing it for the better part of an hour.

"Who's that guy?" Todoroki asked, low, when Steve took out his phone and tried to hide the fact that he was recording. He didn't particularly mind cameras in general, but the shit-eating grin worn on the American teen's face just made him uncomfortable.

Steve took another sip of his protein shake and Todoroki looked back to Momo, a much more welcome sight. But despite the seemingly innocuous question, Momo's face clouded. It was complicated.

Momo hesitated before answering. "I'll tell you later," she promised. Well, if she'd been trying to keep him a secret, she wouldn't have brought him. After a few minutes of slow, methodical technique rehearsal, the two returned to sparring.

Due to the recent events involving quirk-manipulating drugs, the fight with Eraserhead, and the general pervasiveness of situations where Todoroki might not be able to use his quirk, he had asked Momo to instruct him in bojutsu twice a week to ensure he at least had something to fall back on in the likely event of an emergency. He was competent, but not competent enough.

After about three consecutive matches in favor of Momo, Todoroki managed to land a hit to her rib. Not powerful, but after a few weeks of lessons, some progress was nice. He smirked. Steve's hands shot up in congratulations, causing Todoroki to look over long enough for Momo to wipe his feet out from under him, flipping him onto his back. At the sudden overturn, Steve cackled and whooped, struggling to keep the video stable.

"I think that's enough for today," Momo said triumphantly, pulling Todoroki up off his ass and offering to take his bo back to the rack. He opted instead to walk with her.

"Got any bets for how the summit will go?" He asked. The question was almost rhetorical. The following day, a summit was being held at the Hero Network HQ to discuss the previous year and the future of the organization. The likelihood of it going well was low. Little had happened in that time that could be remotely considered positive for the outlook of heroics in the immediate future.

Momo sighed. "Actually, I'm not going to be there. I have a... prior commitment with Steve," she said, gesturing absently at the young man sitting against the wall. She looked at him, slightly embarrassed. "You'll tell me about it on Monday, right?"

Todoroki nodded, struggling to fit the bo staff through the three holes in the rack, placing it and replacing it until it settled lopsidedly. "You'll be away from the dormitory until then?" He supposed a few days of reading wouldn't be too bad if Midoriya didn't ask him to do something. Maybe he'd visit his mother. Todoroki eyed Steve, wondering absently what business he had with his friend.

"No, but you will, right? You're home for the weekend?"

Right. The weekend at home. Todoroki was looking forward to it and he wasn't. There were certainly some members of his family he appreciated more than others, but his sister was one of the ones he cared more for, and her baby shower was on Sunday. He was going to see his father either way at the summit, so the net loss was rather low.

"I appreciate the fact that you remembered." The corner of his mouth twitched into what was almost a smile. "The way you pay attention to your underlings demonstrates your capacity for leadership." The statement had an air of drama, but the compliment was sincere. She blushed a bit and grinned.

"Why, thank you. I try."

But a moment after the echoes of the statement faded into the passing wind, Momo's smile went with it. The mild scowl she'd worn most of the afternoon took back its place on her brow.

Friendship didn't come easily to Shouto Todoroki. A childhood spent homeschooled and isolated from his own siblings left him stunted socially, and the gap between his own experiences and that of his classmates was wide. Despite this, he had been making efforts to better engage himself with others. He took mental notes on proper human interaction when there was something to be learned, and this situation was one he'd prepared for. From the training exercise, he'd learned the Momo Yaoyorozu "I have something to say but I've decided against it" expression. Now for the proper response.

"Hey, are you doing okay?" He asked, as they began shutting the doors they'd opened to vent the air.

"I'm fine," she insisted awkwardly.

As it turns out, no matter how many internet articles tell you that offering to talk to a girl about her feelings is the solution to any particular problem, the action in actuality is useless.

As the duo returned to the front of the building, where Todoroki's father was presumably waiting to pick him up, they were greeted with the sight of Steve attempting to petition Endeavor for an autograph, but struggling with the language barrier. He was met with a halfhearted scribble and a clap on the shoulder that left an ashy black handprint on the suit Steve was wearing for whatever reason. Endeavor turned to the two teenagers, causing Steve to take notice of their arrival.

Steve took yet another obvious look at Momo's sparse workout clothes, which Todoroki realized for the first time seemed a bit more conservative today, before sliding his eyes over to Todoroki and struggling to say something. He searched for the translation of the words he wanted to use.

"Ice guy?" he finally got out, smiling like they were pals.

"Yep. Ice guy. That's me."

Steve extended a hand to shake, and after a moment, Todoroki took it, not particularly wanting to preserve his reputation with the boy but getting the feeling he'd be seeing him again. Steve's eyes lit up ever further and he exclaimed something in English. Momo grinned.

"He says your hands are cold," she translated.

"Surprise", the ice guy deadpanned.

The handshake was lasting a bit too long and Todoroki wasn't exactly clear on American standards of etiquette. He looked down awkwardly, and noticed that Steve's hand was significantly larger than his.

That's odd, he thought. We're about the same height.

After comparing the size of the hand Steve was shaking Todoroki's with to the one at his side, Todoroki came to the conclusion that he must have some kind of hand-enlarging quirk like Kendou. What's more, he was using it to try to appear intimidating.

Why? Why was Steve, who was so interested in being friendly and had apparently watched enough of the sports festival to recognize him several months later, trying to be intimidating when he should know very well that Todoroki could stomp him in moments? It didn't make sense. But he'd already seen enough of Steve to decide he probably didn't act rationally, and if he decided to try to push, Todoroki was capable of pushing back, just a little.

While smiling his strange grimace, Todoroki ramped the temperature of his extremities down until Steve dropped his friendly facade and took his hand away.

"Come on, Momo, let's go," Steve said in English. Todoroki understood none of it, but he was surprised that the young man had the gall to call her by her given name. He chalked it up to a cultural difference.

As Steve tried to step to turn and walk away, he found his shoes frozen in place. His knees buckled and twisted. He regained his composure almost instantly, but the look of pain that flashed across his face did admittedly bring Todoroki some measure of satisfaction.

As Steve left with Momo, Endeavor grunted at his son. "She's very powerful," he said. "I've seen her fight before. Her family is wealthy, but we're wealthier and have social standing. I could arrange to have that happen for you if you asked."

Todoroki stared blankly at his father for a few moments, unable to comprehend the sheer audacity of what he had just said.

"Not the marriage conversation again. Let's just… not." Todoroki made a motion like he was about to start walking, but Endeavor continued as if Todoroki hadn't done anything.

"The conversation will continue until the issue is resolved, Shouto. It's past time for these considerations."

It wasn't past time. It wasn't past time at all. But the decreased involvement of All Might and the continual hunting of heroes combined with Endeavor being blamed for the sudden spike in crime had led the man into a bit of paranoia. He sensed an attack coming, and he was looking for an excuse to pass the family estate to his youngest son in case something happened. "Eldest married male" was an accepted policy, and one Endeavor was hoping to take advantage of so that his hero agency could stay in the hands of his sidekick until Todoroki reached an acceptable age. The rest of his siblings were too old and Endeavor cared about them too little.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm pretty sure I can find a wife without having to pay for one." Todoroki regretted not having prepared a more poisonous retort, but it fitted well enough. He looked over at Momo, hoping she was out of earshot.

He wished he hadn't.

Steve the wealthy American boy was gripping her by her arm near the shoulder in what appeared to be an attempt to help her get into the car but actually made it very clear that he A) was in a hurry to leave, B) wasn't particularly mindful of what he was doing to another human, and C) didn't think she could get in the car by her damn self.

Well, if it's a date, he thought, this Steve guy won't last very long. A half dozen scenarios flashed through his mind of all the ways Momo would break this poor moron before their time together concluded.

"You're being childish yet again. You're not listening to me despite knowing very well I want the best for you."

Todoroki rolled his eyes so hard he thought he could see his brain. His brain looked just as exasperated.

XXXXXXXXX

 _Pray for me,_ she'd texted Jirou after Steve had driven her home the night before.

It hadn't been his godawful driving. She had no idea how he had gotten a license, but it was clear he wasn't used to driving on the left side of the road.

It hadn't been Steve's overenthusiastic, smarmy demeanor. People were people and first impressions got washed away with time spent getting to know the other person.

It hadn't been the empty, meaningless conversation that had sparsely populated the car ride, or the strange way that he smelled, or the terrible American protein drink he'd offered her that was "supposed to optimize post-workout rejuvenation."

What bothered Momo about Steve was that she didn't understand why he'd suddenly turned up.

They hadn't seen each other in years, and they hadn't ever spoken before because Momo hadn't learned English. In fact, she'd decided to pick up the language back up only because Steve had announced he was coming to Japan for her birthday week three months ago, and she'd been unable to ask him what on Earth he was thinking. Now that he was here, it was more obvious just how little actual reason to spend any time together existed. But he came anyway, the Fall break at his private school landing on just the perfect week.

And so now, they were sitting in a half-empty coffee shop near the UA dormitories, where Steve was telling Momo a slow, deliberate story about life at the East American Academy of Heroics in some attempt to impress her while the girl in question watched Thirteen gesticulate on the television over his shoulder, squinting to read the subtitles against the glare from the window. Whatever was going on at the summit, it simply had to be more interesting than this conversation.

The _omiai_ tradition was long-standing in Japan, and while it had fallen out of style somewhat in recent years, it still stood that if your parents told you to marry someone, you did it.

Steve had been the son of Momo's father's business partner when they were younger, and the men had made a marriage agreement over their children when the two were very young. Steve's family had a home in Japan, but he attended English-speaking schools as a child and boarding schools in the United States from about the age of eleven. If he'd ever known Japanese, he didn't now. He was a year and a half older than Momo and acted as if the extra time on this earth made him more worldly and wise.

Thirteen's speech was about the heightened need for paramedics as those who would previously have been attracted to the field were now pursuing heroics. The rise in villainy resulting from Stain's campaign had inspired more heroes to focus on combat and villain takedowns, so natural disasters were becoming more deadly and villains who planned actual widespread destruction were fought by heroes unable to perform basic life-preserving strategies on whatever victims they encountered. He suggested adding a third subclass, "medical rescue", in addition to disaster rescue and villain takedown hero designations. Thirteen theorized that the fame and reward of heroics combined with an increased capacity for individuals with healing quirks would be a net gain for the Hero Network and Japan as a whole. While Momo agreed to an extent, she wasn't sure-

"So… ah…. What do you do? You go to the beaches around here?" Steve asked, finally having caught on that he was boring her.

It had certainly taken him long enough.

"Well, I uh, I like to build things," Momo sputtered, getting her brain back on track to this conversation. "I study chemistry and mechanics a lot." She waved her hand over the table and produced a Yaoyoroshka Mark IV, a version of her weaponized nesting dolls. This version, when thrown, turned inside out to produce blades. It wasn't very practical and she'd probably never use it, but it had been her most recent design and was fresh in her mind.

Steve reached across the table and grabbed it. "Chemistry and mechanics, huh? I've never really been into that kind of stuff. But this is coo- agh!" Steve had attempted to twist the two sides of the doll apart, but had sliced his hand open. He reached across the table and grabbed a fistful of napkins, cursing.

Momo sighed, took his hand, and unrolled his fingers from the bloody napkins, pressing an absorbent pad into his palm and wrapping gauze around it. She produced a safety pin from a finger and clipped it shut.

"Medical equipment, now that's a better use of your quirk than those dolls. You've got a real gift for taking care of people."

It was almost the same compliment she'd received from Todoroki yesterday, but she saw in his eyes that the comment was a snagged opportunity. He'd been looking for something to flatter her about. He was trying to be manipulative but, as he'd just admitted, he wasn't very smart.

Steve hissed and pouted, squeezing and opening his injured hand. The cut wasn't even that big. Whiny little bitch. Momo rolled her eyes and looked back up at the television. Maybe it was rude but this "date" had already gone on too long.

"So you're good with people, you're good at fixing booboos, so, speaking of creating things, do you think you'd want to have kids?"

Momo looked him in the eye and made a show of trying to find the waiter. Then she breathed and decided the question was fair since this was supposed to be a marriage negotiation after all.

"Do I want them? Not sure. I haven't given it any thought, honestly. But I'm a mutant- the first in my family with my quirk, and we don't know what effects it will have. I can't create anything living, as much as I've tried to make plants, vaccines, single-celled organisms. The doctors say there's a good chance my quirk might keep me from being able to have kids regardless."

Steve looked at her seriously, appraising her. "Your parents were able to produce both you and your genes. That should be a good sign, right?"

"Fair point."

Steve got a strange expression. "I mean, you're… normal, right? You know what I mean. You're… complete." He made a motion with his eyebrows.

Momo turned red in the cheeks and put her head in her hands. She looked back up at the television, trying to ground herself in the hero summit to calm down while she considered exactly what to do with the increasingly awful situation before her. He didn't like science, he couldn't carry a normal conversation, and he had just asked about her genitals on their first date.

Steve turned around to see what exactly it was she was looking at, just in time for the camera to pan across the audience. In the front row was Endeavor, on fire as usual, sitting next to Todoroki, who appeared to be asleep.

"So, ah, how close are you with Snowflake?" Steve asked.

"I'm the best student academically and he's the best fighter. We always work together because if we do we win. We're friends."

Steve turned around with a sly expression. "I get it. I have someone to compete with."

"What." Momo deadpanned.

"It's fine, I get it. I saw you guys getting all sweaty yesterday." He lifted his eyebrows, grinning. "And besides, I have a girlfriend too. Had. Had a girlfriend. We broke up."

Momo stood up.

"Ok, ok, ok, I'm sorry, I was wrong," Steve backpedaled frantically, waving his arms in front of him in what he probably thought was a calming motion. "I thought, you know, girls like guys who are gloomy and all that but I was wrong. You guys seemed close and I just wanted to let you know that it's okay if everything's not working out right now, I know this was short notice but we'll figure it out. We don't really know each other but I think we could make it work."

It was the first thing Steve had said that sounded like had put some thought into his words at some point. He was trying to reveal that he'd had a girlfriend in the years they'd been apart. Her feelings weren't hurt and she didn't blame him- she wouldn't have felt particularly awful dating, either. She until recently was almost certain that the engagement was off completely. And the fact that, while mistaken, he would have been understanding if she'd already been in a relationship was Steve's first point in the positive. He hadn't seemed the type.

"I don't want to sit in this cafe anymore. Let's take a walk."

XXXXXXXXX

The day after the summit was cloudy but not unpleasant. Tables had been set in the courtyard of the Todoroki home, where Fuyumi and her husband greeted far more guests than they could reasonably know personally. Todoroki sat alone awkwardly at a table where a group of people had left their bags.

This wasn't the type of occasion Todoroki preferred to spend his time, but it was pleasant anyway. He'd gotten to spend the hour and a half before the party carrying things where Fuyumi told him to while she lounged on a mass thrown together of chairs, pillows, cushions, and more chairs in a way that only a really, really pregnant woman did.

She told stories of the students she'd recently had to leave for the year, and Todoroki told her about his classmates' antics. She didn't say it, but the awed way she listened to the his tales of life in the dormitory made it clear she was happy for him. He'd never had friends and he'd never spent time with other kids, so the fact that he'd shared a story about Mina arm wrestling Dark Shadow for the cereal milk was more than she'd ever hoped for him. He didn't think it was quite as sappy as she did, but she wasn't the first person who had told him he seemed happier since leaving home. That shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was true anyway.

Now, watching the various women and occasional men who chose to attend the party share food and laughter, Todoroki couldn't help but be happy for his sister in return. She'd spent so much of her life feeling guilty over the events of their childhood that he wasn't sure she'd ever reach this point. Now, they were having a regular barbecue and anticipating the arrival of a new family member. Fuyumi had found the love of another person and the courage to bring life into the world when sh'ed found out she was pregnant with a baby she hadn't planned for.

But despite the fact that this was almost exactly what his father was trying to woo him with over the marriage arrangements, he still didn't want this for himself.

In the midst of the rising crime rates and chaos, things for Todoroki were improving for the first time in his life. He had made a friend- three of them, and there were other students in his class that he could envision himself spending time with at some point. Beyond Midoriya, IIda, and Momo, he appreciated Tokoyami's capacity to focus and perform well under pressure despite his usual dramatic air. He liked Shouji's habit of getting up every Sunday to make enough pancakes for everyone just because he could. He didn't think he'd ever put a lot of effort into a real friendship with Kirishima, but he still enjoyed watching him and Tetsutetsu beat each other up on the lawn in front of their dormitory every Tuesday.

Every conversation about some strange girl with nitroglycerine sweat or increased resistance to temperature fluctuation or enhanced hearing was a threat to the life he'd started to make for himself at school. He wanted to know where his current track was taking him, not get off on some new one when the ride was only beginning.

Shit. He was getting all sappy.

The party started to split apart; there would be an event at the other side of the house where the men would hang out for a few hours while the women stayed here. Todoroki got up, hugged his sister tightly, and followed his in-laws inside. He was about to go up to his room to get his things together before heading back to the school when his phone went off.

 _Come speak with me. Now._

XXXXXXXXX

"As you are currently not doing anything, I would like go back downstairs and meet someone." Endeavor was facing the window in the office of their home, looking out to where the guests at the women's half of the baby shower were milling about.

"What," Todoroki said flatly. "Who?"

"I took the liberty of calling up Miss Yaoyorozu's family yesterday." Todoroki started to interject, but Endeavor kept talking. "Unfortunately, it appears she's already engaged to someone. This is not a big issue, I have already been looking into various prospects for you and there is a girl nearby who doesn't have school on Monday either. Her quirk is extremely advanced stamina and a very powerful immune system. I believe both of these are things that would work well with the two that you have, and would most likely not interfere with them so as to make them ineffective."

"Look. Father. I was completely serious when I told you I would like to make my own decisions, particularly regarding this. Please do not schedule any further appointments with prospective suitors. Dear Lord. Please." Todoroki pinched his nose between his fingers. "Please."

"You've turned down every other prospect. The girl is already here. I am only asking that you speak with her. You may have the final decision, if that is what you want."

Todoroki almost protested, but shook his head. He could give this girl a shot, he decided. It would only make her feel bad and him feel like a dick if she came out to some stranger's baby shower and got stood up.

"Fine, but if I like her, we have to date for, I don't know, a year first. I'm not doing this your way."

XXXXXXXXX

Nonoha was nineteen and small, but fit. She had a plain face and hands that looked like she used them for working. Her black hair had two long braids framing her face, and her makeup was colorful. As she smacked her gum loudly, she reminded Todoroki of Jirou.

The full force of what Endeavor had said hit when he sat down in front of her. Momo was getting married. Steve was the guy. Steve was the guy Momo was marrying.

His jaw dropped slightly, and the girl, Nonoha, blushed awkwardly. She probably thought he found her attractive. Which, she was, but that wasn't it at all.

Steve? The American? He vaguely remembered Momo learning English from a book on a couch in the dormitory.

"What?" He asked.

"I asked if it was true you attended U.A." Nonoha brushed her long, straight hair behind her ear, but she was staring at one of the vases on a far table.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah I am. Did you watch the sports festival a few months ago? I was in that, so you might have seen me at some point."

He remembered Steve whooping at the sparring match. Everything started to make sense. Steve was one of those Americans who thought Japanese girls would be all over them. Watching Momo fight was a sight to behold indeed- Steve was ecstatic at having won such a perfect picture of Japanese femininity.

"No, I'm usually not really into that sort of thing. I'm studying art." Oh boy. Things weren't looking like there would be much to talk about for a single conversation, let alone a lifetime.

This was probably how Momo's date with Steve had gone. They'd chatted politely over tea or something and he'd made some comment about how cute this tea shop was, just like her, and it was probably terrible.

The worst part was, he'd thought based on their interactions that this would be some one-time thing that ended with Steve in a ditch somewhere. Apparently it had been serious enough that someone at the Yaoyorozu household had told Endeavor of all people to go away. This meant there was obligation. This meant Momo would try to make it work whether it was a good idea or not because she felt responsible.

This was bad.

"Oh no!" Nonoha squeaked. "Uhm, did you know that your hair is on fire?"

Todoroki's eyes widened as he patted the side of his head with his right hand. "Thanks. Sorry, I got distracted."

"It's okay. I'm not particularly looking forward to this, either." Nonoha looked at her hands, the admission embarrassing her a bit.

Todoroki turned and looked at her. "It's all right. I told my father I'd at least meet you so that I could give you a chance, but now that we know how much we really don't have in common, I'll tell him we're not compatible."

Nonoha looked confused. "Really? My grandmother told me the deal was pretty much set. That this was a first meeting of many, if you know what I mean."

He should have seen this coming.

Todoroki dropped his head into his hands. "I'm really sorry. It's my dad. He sortof… does what he wants. You know what? Why don't we give this another couple minutes and see if we have anything else we can talk about?" He tried a smile at her, but he was out of practice and he was sure it looked a bit garish.

Nonoha shuddered. "Ah, actually, I feel like I should probably tell you… I'm in love with someone else."

Todoroki raised his eyebrows. "Oh."

"And don't tell anyone, but it's a girl. No offense, but I'm never gonna love you, no matter what. I'm trying to stall until I can go to college and get away from my grandmother. Let's just call this off."

XXXXXXXXX

"He wouldn't call it off," Todoroki finished. "Said he didn't think I'd ever come to a decision and that this was the only thing he could trust me to do."

He was sitting in the floor in Momo's room playing with a Yaoyoroshka Mark 4, Momo on her desk at the room's other end. It was eleven o'clock Sunday night, and they were both in their pajamas.

"Which is just a very long way for me to break the ice, no pun intended, so that I can ask you about something. Is Steve the guy you're engaged to?" Todoroki wanted to keep staring at the doll, but thought he should probably give Momo the respect of looking her in the eye. She looked away anyway.

Momo snorted. "You said 'guy', but by the looks of things, the correct word might soon be 'corpse.'" She sat down in front of him on the floor against the bookshelf. "How'd you know?"

"Heh. My, ah, dad called your house and asked if you were available." Now Todoroki actually did look away.

"That's odd, it was an agreement between our parents but nothing's really been made official. Come to think of it, Steve's staying with my parents. He might have been the one who told your dad to bugger off."

"So he's possessive." Todoroki frowned. He had a bit of experience dealing with arranged marriages that had failed miserably, which was why he'd decided to confront Momo tonight in the first place.

Momo made vague, frustrated gestures as she spoke. "He's… something. We have virtually nothing in common. He was in the hero training program at his school, but he got swapped into general studies last year. He likes surfing and Nike socks. He made fun of my accent and made up a bunch of stupid nicknames and talked about how cute I was, but also made about a dozen suggestive comments about our… sparring session." Momo looked uncomfortable. "And that's just with the little English I'm capable of."

"So what now?" he asked.

"I don't know. I'm trying to find a solution." She noticed what Todoroki was playing with and sat up. "Be careful with that. Steve cut his hand open on that yesterday."

Todoroki looked more closely at the nesting doll. "This?" He tried to open it and had to dodge the blades that extended suddenly. He barked out a laugh. "I like it. I have no idea what you'd do with it, but I like it."

Todoroki reached over to hand the doll back to her and stiffened. "Which hand was it?"

"What?"

"Which hand did Steve cut open?"

Momo looked up, thinking. "The right one?"

"Dammit", he cursed. That's the one he shook. Not this again. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy." He looked back at her. "Did he just bring this up out of the blue?"

"Yeah, pretty much. He said he had a girlfriend who broke up with him, and that was maybe six months ago, and then three months ago he said he was coming here. My dad just told me Steve was coming and that we might make the engagement official at the end of the week if things were working."

"Doesn't sound like it's working, but you wouldn't be telling me about this if it was as easy as telling him to go away."

"Yeah, strangely, despite the fact that I have tried a couple of times to bore him to tears about chemistry, he's just not losing interest. He's still convinced it's a good idea."

Todoroki rubbed his forehead. "Ok, so I'm pretty sure I know what's going on here. This was his idea, not his dad's, right?"

"Yeah."

"So he's some spoiled kid who gets sent away to boarding school, where he's popular because of his quirk and his weird family situation in Japan, and everybody tells him he can be a hero. He's a trust fund kid and he's at the top of the social ladder. He gets a girlfriend. He joins the hero course. But he can't keep up. He's not very smart and he doesn't have the personality to match his… I'm guessing his quirk is body part modification?"

Momo rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he certainly didn't shut up about that one."

"Yeah, so once the novelty of that wears off his girlfriend leaves him for somebody who is actually interesting, and he gets moved to general studies. All of a sudden he's a failure. Clearly, not only is he not the brightest bulb in the box, but he doesn't have the interest in school to make up for it. There's bound to be somebody more popular, and of course his family isn't happy with his grades."

Momo squinted at him, trying to figure out where this was going.

"And then you show up. You make it pretty far in the Sports Festival, and that one clip of you taking down the robots with your vest undone goes viral. It gets out that that girl is the one at the top of the class in the top ranked school. Then, the nail in the coffin. You get paired up with Uwabami for the field training and she plasters you all over television."

Momo sat back against the bookshelf, understanding.

"You're his path back to social acceptance. He may have poor grades and a shitty, generic personality, but he's got that pretty hero candidate from Japan all over his Instagram feed- and best of all, if you're married, you can't leave like the last girl did."

Momo put her head in her hands. "That makes a lot of sense. He suggested I do an exchange with the American school for six months."

"Don't."

"I'm not." She picked her head up. "Now I have to deal with this. This has taken up a lot of his time and effort. The whole thing started because his and my dad used to be business partners but split up when his father went into politics. My dad's been struggling a bit for the last couple years, and we've taken a pretty big nosedive again recently. The preface to the 'hey my son remembered your daughter existed' conversation was 'hey you look like you need help continuing to function as a legitimate corporation, let's work out something mutually beneficial.'"

"Your dad's not going to marry you off to some foreign douchebag for money." He didn't thnk so, anyway.

"No, but I get the feeling relations between the two could get a lot worse fast, and I just don't want that to be my fault." She sighed. "I'm thinking I could just be all wishy-washy and say 'I don't know, let's do the paperwork later.' Maybe he'll move on to some other fixation."

"It's been three months, minimum. You know he'll keep pushing it."

She sighed.

"Yaoyorozu, you know I respect the hell out of you, right?" He asked.

"Ah, yes," she responded awkwardly.

"Then I want you to know that I am making this assessment completely objectively. You cannot marry that guy. Go marry some shy programmer who won't give you any grief. Go marry some hobo who will flash your name around to get into clubs. But don't marry Steve. My dad beat my mom every morning over the kitchen table until she lost her mind. I don't think Steve will hit you, but he'll belittle you in little ways until you're nothing. You get insecure sometimes, and this time you'll be on a different continent than your friends and family speaking a foreign language and eating trashy food. You'll lose the will to be a hero and you'll become a trophy wife because you'll have no one to support you emotionally and no one who wants to."

He turned to look at Momo, who was staring at him.

"I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. Either you'll lose your self-esteem or you'll be bored until you die."

Tears started to well up in Momo's eyes. Shit.

"I'm not crying over Steve," she said. "I'm just frustrated. You're right. I'm too complacent and I should have just told him to stay on his side of the ocean."

"Well, there was a little history there. You haven't really messed up yet. The question is what to do now."

"How do you say no firmly while making it really clear that it doesn't have anything to do with him? Even it does? We can't have any kind of retaliation."

"He'll take it personally whatever you do. The fact that he's willing to overlook the language and cultural barrier is a bad sign, and a worse sign is the fact that his dad is going along with it. By now his dad probably thinks this whole plan is a good idea, too. Sees you as someone who will grow in social standing. A net gain for the family."

"The only really 'good' reasons I've come up with that could justify the nullification of the prior agreement would be a better offer coming by or some previously unknown medical condition on my part. I already told him there's a good chance I can't have kids and he didn't seem to care, and any less severe medical condition isn't legal justification for a marriage annulment and therefore agreement by extension, so the second option's out."

"What does your dad even do?"

"My family owns a construction materials company. We've been having difficulty getting grants to fund the materials science research we need to get a competitive edge for manufacturing structural materials made more resistant to frequent kinetic impact. Hero-proofing buildings is in high demand and there's funding for it, and guess whose father works in what very convenient branch of government." Momo massaged her bare feet, not making eye contact. It wasn't in her nature to show weakness, and now she was explaining almost every weakness she had in detail.

"Oh."

On the dresser in Todoroki's room were four small objects. The first was a "thank you" card sent to him by Fuyumi's third grade class after he'd visited the school one day to answer questions about UA. One of them was a small figurine of All Might Midoriya had given him. The third was a pair of Iida's glasses Uraraka had swiped once. The final object he had on his dresser was a basic matryoshka he'd picked up after one of his and Momo's first missions together.

Despite all the progress he'd made, Todoroki knew that Momo was one of three, maybe four people on the planet whose presence he could not only stand but enjoy for more than fifteen minutes at a time. (Iida depended on the day, really.) He knew he wasn't the most expressive person and he appreciated how affording everyone had been through his transition from "kind of an asshole" to "kind of a nice guy." And if Momo was willing to help him understand triple integrals at three o'clock in the morning when his pleasant demeanor faded, he was willing to help her figure out how to escape from some weird legal situation, if only to make sure she was able to stick around.

Momo was, as Midoriya would say, "within arm's reach."

And just like that, he had an idea.

"You know how I make stupid plans sometimes? I need you to tell me if this is as dumb as I think it might be. Because I also think it might just work."

"I'm listening."

"There's another route to those research grants. The Hero Network can spew research money, especially under the guise of building safer buildings in place of whatever they destroy."

"But aren't those grants, like, really difficult to get to? Everybody and their brother is scrambling to get their hands on some grant because the work they do is tangentially related to the hero industry, and my dad isn't any more qualified. I'm pretty sure we've already been turned down for it."

"Yeah, they're difficult. You pretty much have to have someone on the inside in the Hero Network helping you, someone of high ranking or up there in administration. That's… sortof where I'm going with this."

"Neither of us will even be in the rankings for two more years." Momo looked confused.

"No, but this is where the thing you said about the legal agreement comes in." He took in an awkward breath, hoping he didn't sound like a total moron for making the suggestion. "You can break it if you get a better offer, right?"

Momo took a few seconds to process what he was saying. She stared at him, slackjawed.

"It would actually be pretty easy," Todoroki continued. "We wouldn't tell any of our classmates, Nonoha could go back to pretending to be straight, Steve could have his own private hissy fit, your family could get back to work, my dad would be ecstatic, unfortunately. He likes you. We'd go back to regular, everyday life for the next couple of years. When we graduate and go our separate ways, we can do the paperwork quietly and pretend it never happened."

Momo stared at him intently, trying to work through the logic. "Are you serious?"

"I'm completely serious," Todoroki said. "I'm suggesting we get married."

 **A/N: If you made it this far, you're a hero too.**

So this is my first story for BNHA. I'm already a good way into writing chapter two and I'm pretty clear on where the whole saga is going, but I'd still really like your feedback so that I can get a feel for what you people want out of a story.

The whole thing will be 8 or 9 chapters, depending on how things get split up. This is my first romance, so I'm doing a little experimentation, but I have an endgame and I'm dedicated to doing this right.


	2. Deadlock

Deadlock

The following morning, Todoroki woke to the sound of half a dozen footsteps running across the hallway outside his room. They stopped outside his door.

"Todoroki!" Uraraka's voice rang out. "Todoroki we need your help!"

He rubbed his eyes but didn't move. "With what?"

"The toaster isn't working. Can you come downstairs?" Hagakure this time.

Todoroki sighed. "I don't know how to fix a toaster. Go talk to Yaoyorozu."

"We did. She said she'd look at it later and to ask you instead, so can you get your butt up and get moving?" Mina whined.

Todoroki sighed and rolled off of his mats, yawning and cracking his toes for a moment before shuffling over to the door. The three girls sighed with relief when he stepped out into the hallway and followed them into the elevator.

In the kitchen, Tokoyami was watching Youtube videos with the aid of the specialized headphones he'd paid Mei to design for him while awkwardly eating a hardboiled egg with chopsticks and sipping orange juice through a straw. Kirishima was snacking on a protein bar, looking out the window, while Kaminari was repeatedly trying to electrocute the toaster into doing his bidding. It wasn't working.

Todoroki made his way to the sink, washing his hands thoroughly and pulling out the bread. "Ok, who all wants toast?" he asked, rolling his eyes internally but enjoying the fact that he was appreciated. A chorus of "Me!"s and "Me too"s and "I do"s rang out from the living room, where a couple of other stragglers filtered in. They all got in what could almost reasonably be considered a line while Todoroki placed the bare palm of his left hand on one piece of bread at a time, browning it slightly, shoving plate after plate to those waiting. Dark Shadow snagged a piece out from under his hand.

"Good morning to you, too," he said to the odd 21st member of their dormitory. Dark Shadow screeched out a reply through a "mouth" full of bread.

"Don't encourage him," Tokoyami said, smacking the bread out of Dark Shadow's reach. "You're just making a mess." The two continued back to the kitchen table, bickering as siblings usually did.

As the last person in line left, a quiet shuffling was heard on the stairs. Momo stepped into the kitchen, half-asleep and trailing a hand across the wall to keep herself from falling over.

"Wow, Yaomomo, you look awful."

"Thanks for noticing, Kaminari, but I'll be fine."

"Toast?" Todoroki asked.

"Sure, why not." She made her way to the counter, where she dropped her head onto her folded arms. "Did you hear anything back from your dad?" she asked, her voice quiet.

"Not yet."

 _We need to talk. It's about Nonoha,_ was what the text message said. Admittedly, he probably could've worded it to sound a little more like he was trying to be cooperative, rather than weasel out of the agreement with Nonoha, but the fact remained that Endeavor not answering was not Todoroki's fault.

He felt exactly as tired as Momo looked. The previous night, they'd stayed up and discussed the logistics of their plan, working through every contingency and potential backfire they could think of. By the time they'd gone to sleep, they were fairly confident that they could pull it off.

As Todoroki twisted the bag of bread closed, leaving one last piece for himself, the pocket of Momo's pajamas started flashing and buzzing. "Speaking of parents," she said. "It's my mom. I may have left her a cryptic message and a few missed calls this morning, so she's probably entering emergency mode." She breathed shakily, fishing her phone out of her pocket and heading back towards the girls' elevator.

"Hey," Todoroki called. She stopped before stepping inside the cart. "It'll be fine."

She gulped and nodded at him. "Thanks for the toast."

"Good morning, Mother," Momo said once she was behind closed doors. "I'm sorry if I frightened you. I just have something I want to talk to you about before school starts." She needed to focus on today. She'd slept a little more soundly knowing she had a plan to deal with Steve the night before, but soundness of sleep didn't mean squat in the face of going to bed near three in the morning.

There was a clacking noise on the other end of the line. Momo recognized the sound- her mother's heels clinking down the stairs as she prepared to leave for the day.

"Are you talking with your mouth full?" Momo's mother asked.

"Um," Momo swallowed quickly, ashamed. "Yes. Sorry, Mother. It was toast."

Momo's mother sighed. "I know things have been hectic lately. Things must be very stressful for you with this wedding and-"

"Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you-"

"Sweetheart, I know it's frightening, but when challenged with the unknown, we have to face it head on." It was a household mantra.

Momo arrived at her bedroom door and closed it behind her, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor leaning against it. There wasn't much she could say in this conversation that wouldn't sound like she was chickening out to her mother. Maybe, in a way, she was.

Futaba Yaoyorozu had been married at seventeen to a young man who was set to inherit his father's company. She'd gone to college to study mechanical engineering and moved on to a PhD in Materials Science like her father before her. After a few years, she and her husband fell in love.

"Mom, I have to talk to you about the wedding."

Momo took a deep breath. She could rip off the band aid and potentially piss off her mother, or try to ease into the subject and risk losing control of the situation. Both outcomes had the potential to end in failure.

"Is Steve nearby?"

"Not at the moment. He's still asleep."

This was the point when Futaba would usually give the house staff the instructions for the day and head out. Instead, she made the sounds of walking to her office on the ground floor and shutting the door. This was good. She wanted to turn this into a conversation instead of a lecture.

"Good. That's good," Momo said. "I'm…. not going to sign the new agreement."

The sound of an office chair rolling out from under a desk came over the line. "All right. Let's talk through this. You didn't seem enthusiastic this weekend, and I chalked it up to nerves. I suppose there's more going on, then." Futaba's voice was hard but not without compassion.

"We don't get along. At all." Momo winced at how weak that sounded.

"Steve seems to think the two of you get along quite well," Futaba said democratically.

"I was being nice, Mother." She inhaled. "I can't move to America. I've already started to make a name for myself here. Moving there after graduation would be a reset button, and I don't know the culture well enough to predict how I need to act to gain popularity."

"Momo, I'm completely certain you can figure out how to make it work." Futaba stopped and sighed. "But, truth be told, I don't want you to just go and move across the globe, either. I thought it would be selfish to say something and influence your decision, but I'm not seeing as much benefit to you as we were before. I don't even know what would happen to the company if management had to move overseas."

Right. The company. What on Earth would happen to the company once her father retired? Momo wasn't going to run it, so Steve was going to. He had enough business exposure from his background. Now the plan was different, though. Todoroki certainly couldn't take it over after her father retired-

Correction. It would have to be whoever came after. Todoroki was temporary.

"I know things wouldn't work out with Steve and I in the future, but there's still the company to consider," Momo said, trying to ease the conversation in the direction she wanted.

There was an audible sigh from the other end of the line. "I don't know what we're going to do about it, Momo. Steve seems to like you, and Mark and your father still want to go through with it. Let's talk to him about agreeing to live here in Japan instead. We're going to have to work something out. I won't let anyone rush into this, I promise."

"That's not- no. As of last night, I'm engaged to one of the boys in my class."

That had been ripping off the band aid. She stood up and gripped the post of her bed, half-listening to the hallway on the off chance Tsuyu was upstairs to overhear.

"Um…" Futaba trailed off, her scholarly attitude broken. "What?"

Momo tried again, more deliberately, trying to sound like she had herself together. "I've made an engagement with one of the boys in my class. Steve is trying to be accommodating, but I don't think it's going to work in the long run and I've found a better solution. "

"Well," Futaba said, "I must admit I'm confused. Is this… what's his name. Todoroki?"

Momo paused. "Um, yes, actually. You… haven't met him, right? I don't think he's come over for tutoring."

"No, but you've talked about him. You were on the same team in the sports festival. The poor boy whose mother burned his face off. Endeavor's son. I remember when that happened."

Momo didn't know what to say. Maybe this would make it easier to convince her-

"You just…. Agreed to marry this boy?"

"Sorry, sorry, I should have elaborated. His dad can get us access to funding from the Hero Network. We're actually headed to speak with him after school today."

Momo wondered how her mother was feeling. She remembered vaguely being introduced to a young Steve in their previous house. Sitting on the floor and showing him her quirk, which at that point was nothing more than formless pink sparks. When she and the other girls had pretended to be princesses on the playground when she'd first started school, she'd told her friends excitedly about her handsome and dashing prince Steve, who went on elaborate adventures using qualities she'd had to make up for him. And then… nothing. She'd gotten older, and Steve had disappeared from her mind. By the time her teachers were asking her what she wanted to do with her life, other things had happened and she'd forgotten Steve was supposed to be a part of it.

But Futaba wouldn't have. She was one of the group who made the engagement in the first place. She'd thought it was the best thing she could do as a mother. Now Momo was telling her she could make her own decisions, even ones that suggested Futaba's arrangements were unsuitable.

"I see," Futaba said. "This is very sudden, but I see what you're trying to do. Why don't the two of you come over for dinner after you speak with Endeavor? It sounds like we have quite a bit to discuss, and this isn't a conversation for just the two of us."

"All right. We'll be there." It would be nice to eat something not prepared by a gang of teenagers. "Steve will still be around, won't he?"

"Momo, honey, if you're going to do this, you're going to have to face Steve."

"I know." She wasn't looking forward to it. They weren't compatible, but he wasn't a bad person.

"You'll have to talk to your father as well. He'll be disappointed. Mark is his friend."

"He'll understand."

"He will. We'll figure it out. We both want what's best for you." Futaba paused again. "You know you don't have to do this, right? If things are really as bad as you say with Steve, you don't have to go find someone else the very next day. Money is tight but we're not going to force you to do something you shouldn't."

"Dad would just find someone else after all of this died down. I'd rather it was someone I know." She didn't know what to say about what feelings, or lack thereof, were between her and Todoroki. She knew her parents would never agree to a marriage she was planning on ending at the earliest possible opportunity, but it was still a lie.

"You're right. We're trying to secure your future, here." Futaba laughed a little. It was awkward. "We'll see what we have to do to make this work."

"I'll see you tonight."

On the walk to school, Momo trudged silently along the sidewalk to the classroom building with Jirou, who was reading an article about some animated band on her phone. The general atmosphere of the class was that it was Monday, and she was certainly not the only one tired and emotionally unprepared for the week ahead. Still, she knew she looked a little rough.

"So, you gonna tell me why you're so tired or should I mind my own business?" Jirou asked, still scrolling. "Just cause, you know, I texted you last night and you didn't answer me." She smirked. "You up to something?" She was teasing. They both knew the most Momo was ever "up to" was studying late. It was an old joke.

She remembered what she and Todoroki had agreed to. If no one knew, it would be like nothing was going on. As soon as the last bit of paperwork was signed, nothing at all would be out of the ordinary. She hadn't thought too much about the fact that Jirou would be locked out of the loop. Keeping the information away from Mina, gossip supreme, had been an obvious choice. Jirou was her best friend. Now that she was standing in front of her, the urge to share swelled.

"I had to deal with Steve," Momo finally answered. "I'm calling off the engagement."

"Got it. Nice. So your dad is just gonna find another way to the grant? Probably should have done that in the first place." Jirou shot her a sympathetic look.

On the other hand, she'd wanted to talk to her mother so that she could get this out of her mind and focus on school for the day. She loved Jirou, but she needed a little bit of sanctuary from the situation. _Just for now,_ she thought, before she decided what to do about it.

"I have something up my sleeve, but I'm not sure it'll work. I'll let you know how it goes, though."

Subject changed. The rest of the walk was peaceful, Jirou talking about the new drum maintenance kit she was getting in the mail that day and Momo listening, absorbing another person's life and thoughts for a few minutes.

When they arrived at the classroom and Momo took her seat in the back corner, Todoroki shot her a low thumbs-up. He must have received a response from his father.

Now for the next step.

"You understand what this sounds like, right?" Midnight asked.

Todoroki and Momo were sitting in a spare room during lunch hour with their food trays, explaining the situation to Midnight, Principal Nedzu, and Aizawa. Somehow it had felt less awkward to explain it to Midnight, as her bizarre demeanor made bizarre situations seem commonplace. It had worked- once they'd finished their tale, she'd explained the situation to the other two and they'd consulted quietly outside for a minute before returning, collected.

In response to her question, the two students looked at each other uncomfortably and then back at Midnight.

"I can think of ten, maybe fifteen romantic comedies off the top of my head with this exact plot," she continued.

" _Green Card,_ " Nedzu said. " _Son in Law._ Or, wait, no- in _Son in Law_ they were pretending to be engaged and decided to go through with it, not the other way around. I think they did that in _The Proposal,_ too."

"Yeah," Momo said. "But this isn't a movie. We just wanted to let you know that even though we're going to be legally married, we don't want anything involving the school to change. According to the law, I have to change my family name, but I'd prefer to still be referred to as Yaoyorozu. We are going to continue to live on campus. We aren't telling our classmates. We just want to keep things going as if nothing happened."

Aizawa cleared his throat. "I've been teaching teenagers for a pretty good number of years now and I have to say I'm not convinced this is going to work out without weird romantic entanglements that will make everyone miserable."

Midnight nodded. "I agree with Eraserhead. He pegged you two three months ago and now you're suddenly engaged? There's no way everything works out the way you're planning with no strings attached."

"We thought about that," Todoroki said, nodding. "We agreed to just date who we want and then tell them if things are going well. We're splitting anyway, so it shouldn't matter. But the other side of this is that if we did develop feelings for each other or something, they'd have to progress as they would otherwise, right? We'd essentially just be two members of the class who are dating. If it ends badly, it would have happened whether we're married or not."

Midnight faltered. "I guess he has a point. The other students their year are dating now anyways- destructive love triangles are a fact of life for high schoolers."

Nedzu put a paw on his chin. "I suppose that since your parents are the deciding factor here the only thing we could do if we disagreed would be to kick you out of the school- and there's no way we would do that." He laughed. "The whole situation doesn't really appear to be your fault."

"It's settled, then?" Aizawa asked, and Nedzu nodded. "All right. We'll do it as you suggested. Talking to your classmates about it is up to your discretion. You'll be subjected to the same rules involving PDA as everyone else. Now get out and let us eat our lunch."

The Todoroki household was within walking distance of the school. After class, Momo and Todoroki returned to the dormitory to drop off their school materials, change clothes, and pick up enough money for the bus ride to the Aichi prefecture.

"Let's try to make this as quick as possible," Todoroki told her when they were on their way. "This will either go perfectly, where he looks you up and down and gives you a stamp of approval, or he'll throw a hissy fit for whatever reason and we'll get stuck there when he tries to make some huge display of dominance. Let's try to avoid the latter."

"Which do you think is more likely?" She asked, watching his expression.

"Well, my sister is moving out today, so he's probably not in a good mood." Todoroki sighed. "He was shocked when she said she wanted to raise her child in an environment conducive to something resembling a healthy emotional state. Besides, he and my brother-in-law didn't get along as well as is really necessary to live together. I think Father was hoping he would be the one to leave."

"I see," she said. "We'll have a similar situation when we get to my house. Steve will still be there, and my dad was pretty set on this happening, so we may have to do some haggling. My mom is open to it, though, so it looks like the hardest part is right about… now."

A large truck was parked in the courtyard of the Todoroki house, and a boy of about nineteen or twenty with dark red hair was helping a slightly older, thin man with glasses pack furniture and boxes of what looked like office supplies onto the bed. They waved at Todoroki, who sent a small wave back. Momo thought idly that it would have been possible for Fuyumi's child to have lived its entire life in such a huge house without ever meeting its grandfather, but she knew that was beside the point.

"Do you need some extra hands?" Todoroki asked Fuyumi, who was sitting in an outdoor chair under a tree, drinking lemonade she kept cooling with her quirk despite the chilly weather.

"I think they're okay," she said, looking between the two of them. "Hello there. I'm Fuyumi. We've got some more lemonade inside if you're interested."

"Oh! No, that's fine," Momo said, smiling in greeting. "I'm-" she paused, not sure how to introduce herself.

"My future sister-in-law?" Fuyumi asked. "So I've heard. Our dad is thrilled to meet you." She was looking at Todoroki, her expression unsure.

"Yaoyorozu is my classmate," he explained. "Not the girl Father brought yesterday. She's fine."

"Oh," Fuyumi said, relieved. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," Momo said, smiling politely.

Momo understood Fuyumi's hesitation. The two kids had been raised in an environment defined by the poor matchup of their parents. Fuyumi had even stayed in the house until Todoroki had moved out to be sure he would be all right in their mother's absence. Watching Endeavor systematically try to find a wife with the perfect genes to combine with her younger brother's must have been nerve-wracking, as the one who could more clearly remember their mother's misery. She didn't blame Fuyumi for being wary of her.

"So you two know each other well, I take it?" Fuyumi asked. Her smile betrayed her career as a teacher- polite, open, eager, and mostly observant.

"Pretty well, yeah," Todoroki said, just as Momo answered with an "mmhmm" and a nod.

"I'm glad. Well, I'd love to talk more, but Father told me to send you two upstairs as soon as I saw you, so I should probably do that." Fuyumi stopped and frowned. "Is Yaoyorozu your given name?"

"No, it's Momo," the girl replied.

"Welcome to the family, Momo," Fuyumi said, and while there was a little bit of pity in her expression, her face was mostly kind.

Todoroki and Momo were kneeling at a table in an office space inside the house. It clearly wasn't used very often, but it had a printer, which Endeavor was jabbing at with his too-big fingers until it spat out the papers he wanted. He slapped them town on the table, thumbed through them with a comically ill-fitting rubber thumb, and signed it in several places with a pen he removed the cap of with his teeth, chewing on it as he scoured the legalese.

"Knock yourselves out," he said, shoving the papers across the table when he was finished.

"Not so fast," Todoroki said. "We need something."

"Hmm?" The big man grunted, and Momo wondered idly whether Todoroki would at some point shoot up to his imposing height. She decided he would look a little ridiculous.

"My family's company needs funding from the Hero Network," she said. "Can you get it?"

Endeavor regarded her for a moment. "Done. But I need something from you. A few things."

Momo hesitated, seeing Todoroki stiffen beside her. "That…. Depends on what it is."

Endeavor leaned against the desk behind him. "Did Shouto tell you why I'm having him get married?"

"Because you want him to inherit your agency."

"That's…" he scratched his beard. "That's the basics, yes. I tried to get him to talk to you about it a couple of times, but he didn't take me seriously. It's come to my awareness that I have failed as a father in one particular way-"

"Just one? Really?" Todoroki interjected.

"I was referring to the fact that you have absolutely no business sense," Endeavor said to Todoroki pointedly. "I did not teach you how to run a business and that is my fault. You do not cover these things at UA because they have a separate course for that, but you truly have little capacity for leadership and your inability to work at my agency due to your licensing issue is not helping matters."

Todoroki crossed his arms, opening his mouth and then closing it, not quite sure how to respond to that.

"So, what I require of you, Miss Yaoyorozu, is that you simply join my agency along with Shouto when he inherits control of it and join the board of directors. I've obtained what little information I was able to from the school regarding your status as a class leader and recommended student, and I would be much more comfortable knowing someone was on the board that I trusted to make decisions I would agree with should something happen to me after you two turn eighteen."

Momo ran a hand through her hair, shaking her head. "I'm flattered that you think my leadership skill is-"

"You would simply be one of several people making decisions. Of course, I would want you to complete an internship at my agency beginning in about three months so that you can observe the other members of the board interviewing sidekicks, consulting with marketing firms, and managing heroes. You're absolutely correct in saying that you are not an adequate candidate now. But Shouto has already told me he will not be taking his internship at my agency, and he can't even consider it until April, so I need to train someone to ensure his time as the top hero there goes as smoothly as possible. You're no management student, but that's not what I need."

"Okay, I'm going to stop you there. This plan sucks," Todoroki said, folding one arm and gesturing with the other. "No, it doesn't just suck. It's unacceptable. There is not a universe in which this plan would be okay. No. Yaoyorozu- that man is not right in the head. You should stay as far away from him as physically possible."

"Calm yourself," Endeavor said. "There is no need to let your emotions get the better of you. This is what we're doing. I won't be training her personally- I don't have time for that, and besides, her quirk isn't suited to my kind of combat. She'll be working with one of my associates."

Todoroki sat with his arms crossed, fuming. He looked at Momo, who was rubbing her chin with her hand and looking down. This was going in the wrong direction very quickly. Suddenly, this wasn't a quick marriage of convenience to solve their problems for a little while. Someone was expecting something of their union and the expectation had a degree of permanence yet unconsidered in their discussions. Now there was talk of a future they hadn't intended, and people relying on it. Everything they'd talked about had been how to keep it quiet, how to convince Momo's parents to let her do it, how to avoid backlash from Steve's father. Endeavor was a wild card they should have seen coming.

Momo shuffled uncomfortably and looked at Todoroki like she was asking for help. He tried to ask silently whether she wanted to just leave, but just giving up wasn't the answer. There was an uncomfortable silence that sat on the room.

"All right. What's going on here," Endeavor said flatly.

"This is just sudden-" Momo started.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Endeavor asked. "UA teaches you kids to jump at the first sign of an employment opportunity. Instead, you're just sitting there looking confused. You two are hiding something."

"What the hell would we be hiding?" Todoroki asked, trying to keep a neutral-irritated expression.

"I don't know. But I'm not playing games. Someone explain to me what's going on right now." Endeavor jabbed a meaty finger into the desk for emphasis, the flames in his beard flaring to obscure his eyes for a moment. Momo bit her lip, and Todoroki clenched his jaw, unsure of what to do. They were in fact hiding something, and there wasn't much he could make up that could dissolve Endeavor's suspicions.

"Is there a reason you can't work at my agency?" Endeavor said after another few seconds of not having an answer.

"No, I got my license two weeks ago," Momo said. "Everything's fine."

"Is there something that might keep you from being able to marry my son?"

"We just haven't really talked to my parents about it yet," Momo replied, trying to emphasize her hesitation. "I called my mom this morning and she seemed like she'd be okay with it, but we haven't actually talked to my dad yet. We're not one hundred percent on this."

"Well, that makes sense. You could only talk to one set of parents first, and it happened to be me. Whatever they're asking, I can get. But that isn't a secret, either. Is there something wrong with you?"

"What?" Momo asked, shrinking.

"Are you dying? Are you infertile? What is it?" He stepped forward, leaning his head down. It occurred to Todoroki that Endeavor wasn't as angry as he thought he would be because he was looking for a way to solve his problem. Momo was an avenue to that solution, and so he was looking at her as some kind of obstacle that could conceivably be crossed with money or power.

"I might not be able to have kids," Momo said, wincing. "My quirk is a mutation- changes the way my body handles digestion, fat storage, hormones in general. Doctors say they have no clue what makes my quirk work, let alone how it affects my body processes. All I know is I have to eat a lot of food and I haven't been able to create living material."

"Could have sworn I saw you make something out of cotton once," Endeavor said. "Was that my imagination?"

"No, cotton is organic, but it's not alive. I can't make living cultures, but I can do dry things- wood, fabric."

"What happens when you try?" Endeavor asked, his face flat.

"It just… comes out dead. A lot of these things are really complex. I think it's a combination of the fact that I can't really make liquid, and the fact that living things have a lot of tiny parts. I'm pretty sure I'm just screwing up tiny elements of cells that I can't see."

"So it's possible, but very difficult," Endeavor said.

"Well, I can only use whatever mass I have on hand from food. Even if I could comprehend an entire human form for a single instant, I couldn't just make clones of myself. Besides, people are almost entirely water."

"What about a single cell?" Endeavor asked. "An egg. Could you make an egg, theoretically, and give it to a doctor to for external fertilization? Backup, if it turns out your quirk does interfere."

Todoroki watched Momo's eyes flicker in his direction, but not meet his face.

" _I just… have to warn you," he'd said in the dark of her room at two o'clock the night before. Besides the the moon, the only light was the lamp on her nightstand. He blinked the stickiness from his eyes, trying to emphasize his words. "He's a monster, and he's going to ask, and he's going to keep pressing it."_

 _He'd told her everything. It was only fair that she know his father would paint her as someone only worth something to him if she could get past the single limitation she didn't even know if she had._

" _Thank you for the warning," she said, pushing her hair behind her face and over her other shoulder. It faded into the shadows cast by the dim light. "I'll just be straight with him," she continued. "He'd find out either way if he ever spoke to my parents."_

" _Maybe we should just have him call your parents," Todoroki said. "Cut out the middle man."_

" _Todoroki, it's a little jarring to hear about your dad. It's awful. But I can't say it's… too surprising." Momo bit her lip, searching for words. "What's the first thing people notice about my hero costume?"_

 _Todoroki looked down after a moment of hesitation. "It's… it's the skin." He knew why, but it would be dishonest to say he hadn't seen it that way, even a little._

" _I've had this quirk my entire life. I've always had to leave my skin exposed. Don't you think I'm at least a little bit used to some people seeing me as an object?"_

 _Todoroki blinked, understanding a little more about her then. She beat herself up, but no one else could. There wasn't anything anyone else could say that would change her own opinion of herself. She'd stopped caring about whether people noticed the way she dressed a long time ago. It made sense._

" _I know not everyone is the best the world has to offer," she said. "But being a hero means keeping my faith in humanity even through seeing its worst. If your dad only cares about whether I can have kids, he's noone special. Some people are just like that. I'll talk to him. If he's as serious as you say, he might just reject me as soon as he finds out. It has to be me. Don't say a word, okay? I'll be fine."_

"Theoretically, yes," Momo said. "I'd have to learn a lot about it, but I think it's plausible."

"Make it happen," Endeavor huffed. "I want this to work out. Fuyumi went and married a man whose quirk is to induce sneezing. Their children will be weak. You're the best candidate I've found, Miss Yaoyorozu. Let's do what's necessary to make this happen. If that means paying for cloning services, that's what it means."

Momo sat unblinking, her mouth set. She didn't look at the man. Her eyes slid to the window, where birds were hopping about in a tree, pecking at insects. She scratched her arm through her plum sweater, betraying a moment's feeling of vulnerability before she caught herself and folded her hands in her lap.

Todoroki's respect for her grew just a little bit more.

"Now. The internship," Endeavor continued.

"I'd work for one of your sidekicks, through your office," Momo said. "Would I be doing actual hero work?"

"Of course," Endeavor huffed. "My office has always had the most incident resolutions for a reason. I won't pay you for sitting around."

Todoroki saw something glisten in her eyes. An opportunity.

"I'll do it."

Endeavor smiled. "It's nice to see we have someone cooperative entering the family. For a minute there, it looked doubtful. Maybe you'll be a good influence on Shouto."

"Are we done here? We've got somewhere to be." Todoroki asked before he could let himself get riled up. Beside him, Momo looked a little annoyed.

Endeavor cleared his throat. "Yes. So, I'm sure there will be a bit more to arrange, but I'd like you two to get married in the next three weeks. I'm certain you can find a time you're both free before then."

The two teenagers tensed. The speed would have been otherwise surprising, but in this situation, all convention had been thrown violently out the metaphorical window already. "I'm fi-" Todoroki started, but turned to judge Momo's reaction.

"That seems like enough time," Momo said. All things considered, everything was going okay. They had the papers, and Endeavor had agreed to help her parents. That was what mattered.

"All right then," said Todoroki. "Is that it?"

"For now. You two can go."

Momo stood and left the room. Todoroki reached onto the table and grabbed the waivers that had been printed earlier, not making eye contact with his father.

"Maybe I am right about you sometimes," Endeavor said, nodding towards Momo.

Todoroki left without another word.

"We lived," said Momo when they got on the bus to the Aichi prefecture.

"That we did. It was a little touchy for a while, though."

"I hope we wait a few minutes before eating when we get to my house," Momo said. "Your dad's approval is making me... somewhat nauseous." She was holding tightly to a pole, her knuckles white and the exhaustion from their interrogation session suddenly hitting her.

"Yeah, his aggressive acceptance of you was a little weird, but he was in a good mood. You're giving him what he wants. I still know those pressure points if you need them," Todoroki offered.

Momo laughed, and Todoroki's mood lightened. They were now going to have a regular future-family dinner. There would be food, and awkward conversation, and glares from Steve, and best of all, no Endeavor.

"Do you know what you're going to say to Steve?" Todoroki asked.

Momo sighed. "No. I haven't really thought about it. I think I used up my way with words on your dad. Here's hoping, though."

"He might be a little bit of a jerk, but he didn't seem too unstable. He'll be fine."

"Yeah, he's just a kid like us. It's my dad we have to worry about. He likes to plan, be in control of the situation. He's never met you and he still loves Steve's dad. He might find a reason to veto even if it doesn't make sense."

"Well…" Todoroki scratched the back of his head. "You know you've got the final say, right? Girls can make their own marriage decisions at sixteen. I Googled it. After Thursday, they can't make you do anything."

"What? No!" Momo said, eyes wide. "They're my parents. I can't just go behind their back like that, it would be awful."

Todoroki put up the hand that wasn't holding on for balance in a universal gesture of surrender. "Just a suggestion. Your family isn't like that and that's cool. I'm just saying, you aren't completely at their mercy."

Momo nodded, looking at her feet. She watched the passerby go by in blurs for a few moments before speaking again.

"Are we really going to keep this a secret for two and a half years?" She inhaled shakily. "I know it's no one's business but it's an awfully long time. I'm not sure it's even possible."

Todoroki shrugged. "They don't have a reason to think anything's going on, so there's really not a way they'd find out. If they did, we'd be the talk of our grade until something more exciting happens."

"That we would," Momo conceded. "I mean, what do you think? More exciting things happen all the time, but not this kind of thing..."

What did he think? That was a question. Something needed to be done, and this was the best way to do it. But he got what she was saying. There would be this whole aspect of them, something most people would call a big deal, that no one would know about. For Todoroki, it wasn't weird at all. But Momo was far more open than he was, and her place at the center of the class would put lying an everyday occurrence for her. Not just avoiding questions, but actually concealing the truth.

"It's a little weird. I get what you're saying. If you want to tell people, we can. I just thought you'd want things to be quiet. Whatever you decide, I guess."

"I do want things to be quiet. It just feels wrong, you know?"

"Yeah."

The Yaoyorozu household was near the campus where Momo's mother taught. It was a private school, and the people who lived in the area made that fact obvious.

When they rang the doorbell, a cry of "Coming!" rang out in Futaba's voice. Steve opened the door anyway. He was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt and he was barefoot. He glanced at Momo, shook his head, and stared Todoroki in the face for several seconds until Momo's parents came up behind him.

"Why are we standing here?" Futaba asked. "Come inside, kids. We don't want to be out when it gets cold." Her stiff posture, the way her face was set to show that what she had to say was important, was so different from Fuyumi's that it took Todoroki off guard. Both very traditional teachers who gave off very opposite vibes.

Momo obediently stepped inside, kicking off her shoes in a natural motion and sweeping them into their proper place without looking. There were brief "welcome home" hugs, and most of the party went inside. Todoroki paused a moment, realizing how unsure he was about how to handle this situation. He knew what he needed to say, but that was all theory for now.

"Hi," he said to Momo's father, who was still standing in the doorway, after collecting himself. "I'm Shouto Todoroki. I'm a classmate of Yao- your dau- Momo's."

"So I've heard," said the man, stiffly. He was a businessman, dressed like someone who spent his time in an office building. "Tsukasa." He looked warily at the boy, and Todoroki got the uncomfortable feeling he'd been spoken about before coming.

When it became clear Tsukasa wasn't going to say anything else, Todoroki stepped inside, left his shoes where Momo had, and followed her to a tea room off the main hallway.

"You must be Todoroki," Futaba said, and he bowed at her. "We'll talk in a few minutes. For now, what kind of tea do you like?"

"Uh. Whatever you've got. My sister doesn't usually make tea, but definitely count me in."

Futaba stopped in her tracks a moment at his words, her sympathetic eyes raking his face. He wondered how much she knew about him. There wasn't much a quick Google search wouldn't reveal.

"I've got something nice," she said, and scurried off.

The tea room wasn't set up like a dining room, but it was clear from the arrangement who the "head" of the table would be. Steve sat immediately at Tsukasa's left, and Momo and Todoroki sat across the table from them.

There was an awkward silence while Futaba was away making tea, saved for Todoroki by a small cat meandering into the room and weaving its way between his feet. Steve said something in English, and Momo answered politely. They didn't make eye contact.

"He asked how things went with Endeavor."

Futaba returned with the teapot and placed it on the table, sitting across from Momo and next to her husband.

"All right. Why don't you two start at the beginning," Tsukasa said.

Todoroki looked at Momo. "Do you want to start?"

"We should start with you. I'll translate, though."

Todoroki nodded, then faced the group again. "My mom is Scandanavian," he said, pausing for Momo to translate. "She was chosen for a quirk marriage to my father, and they hadn't met beforehand. Even before their relationship turned abusive, they didn't get along and she never truly adjusted to life in Japan. My sister says she remembers Mom talking to her mother in tears almost every day. When Yaoyorozu told me she was going to be moving to America for a business agreement, a lot of alarm bells went off. My dad's already agreed to get whatever grants you need. But, in my experience, there's not a good outcome to Yaoyorozu marrying Steve."

There were opposite reactions from each of the Yaoyorozu parents. The mother gripped her tea and sized him up again, as if she was committing him to her mental library. Someone significant. The father shook his head and looked at his wife, crossing his arms. Whatever he'd said had lost points with Tsukasa somehow.

"Which is why we were talking about moving me here," Steve said through Momo. He gestured with a stiff, frustrated hand.

Todoroki shook his head. "Yaoyorozu, don't translate. Steve, do you have any idea what I'm saying right now?"

Steve looked at him intently, his lips moving as he tried to parse the words. He gave up and looked at Momo helplessly.

"This would be even worse for you," Momo told him.

"Well, young man, it seems you've thought this out,," said Tsukasa, rolling his hands and stretching his fingers. "But I have to say I disagree. I... appreciate the anecdote about your mother, and you seem like a sensible young man, but this isn't quite the dire situation you describe. The two have been engaged since they were three and five. Momo has been to America a few times, she speaks English, and even if she and Steve aren't particularly close, we know his family well. This is a plan we've had for many years, and changing things now would really cause a whole host of complications."

He wasn't making eye contact with Todoroki, but with Steve, who seemed relieved that he was being defended.

"No, not changing something before it goes wrong would cause a whole host of complications," Todoroki said frustratedly. "Now there is an opportunity to avoid problems and I don't understand why you're not taking it. It must be me you have a problem with, then." He looked at Tsukasa until the man was forced to make eye contact. "I haven't heard you ask Momo what she thinks, either."

There was silence at the table as Futaba reached over and began pouring tea, checking the eyes of the rest of the party. No one noticed.

Tsukasa looked at Momo and then back at Todoroki. "You're right. It's a problem with you. I'll admit you're correct in the holes you poked in the plan to give Momo to Steve- settling in a new place is intimidating and we will of course see her less often. But I trust Steve and what comes with him. When you marry someone, you marry their family as well. I've got a computer. I know how you got those burns, and you just told me your father was abusive and may still be. I didn't ask her opinion because I don't want my daughter around your family and I don't want your money, either."

At this, Todoroki didn't have much of a defense. Tsukasa was right. Momo shifted uncomfortably next to him and he looked at her, hoping she could read his mind. _Please just remember what I said. You can't go through with this._

Tsukasa was silent for a moment, thinking. No one else said anything as he leaned forward onto his elbows and sighed. "I just had to say that first. But now, I would actually like to hear from Momo about… why. She's the one who wants to change things. I just want everyone to know where I stand."

Momo went still. This was the point where she would actually have to confront someone. It wasn't her style.

"I-" She breathed again. "I wouldn't be here if we didn't have something to talk about."

A head poked in the door- small woman in a simple uniform. Probably the chef.

"Dinner is ready," she said nervously, the tension in the room palpable.

"Momo, why don't we go wash up?" Futaba asked, her expression pointed. She wanted to talk in private, it seemed.

Momo opened her mouth to protest, but nodded and stood up. She put a hand on Todoroki's shoulder but looked at Steve before leaving the room.

"Steve, show Todoroki to the sink. Tsukasa, can you take the tea to the dining room? No one's touched it," Futaba called as she left. Her husband stared after her, yanked out of his train of thought and looked down at the tea.

"Come on," Steve said to Todoroki, gesturing.

Todoroki stood and followed Steve back down the hall where they'd entered, skimming the walls with his eyes. He realized he'd never been to a classmate's house before. Midoriya had been his first real friend, and they'd moved into the dormitories soon after that had happened, so the most he knew about any of his classmates was what could be gleaned from their personality and actions. He didn't know anyone's family history. Now, he was seeing framed pictures of grade school girls' soccer teams, science fair trophies, and photos of Momo at various ages with seemingly random objects of varying complexity. A news clipping with a very little girl and a young Best Jeanist. He needed no reminders that his childhood wasn't exactly normal, but still, this was a little bizarre.

He reached out and tugged Steve's shirtsleeve. "We… learn English… School," he said. His accent was probably awful. Present Mic would be ashamed of him.

Steve blinked. "Great! Uh…" They arrived at a small half-bathroom, where Steve gestured for Todoroki to enter and wash his hands. Steve stood in the doorway. "Look, I'm not sure whether to apologize or what I'm supposed to do here, but I heard what you were saying and like Tsukasa said you've got some good things to say and I'll keep that in mind, I guess? I know you're probably really mad at me right now but-"

Steve stopped, noticing Todoroki was staring at him, dumbfounded.

"Too fast. Ok." He took a breath. "Sorry, man?"

Todoroki looked at him intently and jabbed a still-wet finger into his chest. "Bad. Plan."

This seemed to visibly annoy Steve, if only a little. He sighed frustratedly. He spoke slowly and deliberately. "Momo. Does. Not. Like. You."

Todoroki made an exaggerated shrugging motion. "Okay." He pointed at Steve again. "You don't stupid plan." He hoped he made sense. If Tsukasa didn't like him, things could still turn out okay if Steve just dropped it.

Steve's facial expression dropped to a more accusatory one. He pulled out his phone and found something in his recent history on YouTube.

It was television footage from the Sports Festival. Midnight was explaining the rules to the cavalry battle. When she was finished, the camera cut to the crowd of students. For the first fifteen seconds or so, the kids milled about or stood frozen, trying to figure out what they wanted to do as individuals.

Steve held a finger close to the screen, struggling not to touch it as he followed a red-haired figure across the field with his fingertip. While the other students were wandering aimless, Todoroki had walked directly across the field to Momo. She was the first team member selected of the entire group.

"Don't lie," Steve said. "You care."

Todoroki shook his head. He remembered that day. He remembered how he felt- or rather, how he didn't. In the emotional state he'd had at the time, it was impossible something as trivial as attraction had made its way into his psyche. He'd known Momo was the key to victory- if he needed offense, defense, and mobility for his team, she was the strongest defense and could at least help with the other two. Momo was his plan.

He understood Steve's perspective, though. They'd met on a day he'd been spending time with her. Whatever research could be done on him showed several connections between them, and suddenly he shows up to the Yaoyorozu house with an engagement counteroffer. She was brilliant, beautiful, capable- why wouldn't he see her that way?

Oh.

The realization was a paradigm shift. His breath hitched, and he resisted the urge to put a slow hand up to his mouth. Steve's timetable may have been wrong, but his observations had merit after all, didn't they? Other things had occupied his mind until the sports festival, but since then, he couldn't pinpoint the time when his thoughts had shifted from "Yaoyorozu is capable" to "Yaoyorozu is capable of anything." No one could do anything-it was physically impossible. But somewhere on the line, he'd forgotten that she, unlike her quirk, was as much a slave to the laws of physics as anyone.

So maybe he and Steve didn't have so little in common. Was it possible he had some kind of bias? That he was seeing danger in some other person's situation out of jealousy? He would have to reevaluate, he-

He looked back at Steve. That wasn't it at all. Steve was trying to take the focus off of himself. He was starting to feel threatened by Todoroki and was trying to get him to back down. This was a man who was in a tight spot and wanted to use Momo to get out of it. Todoroki couldn't allow that, and so his current course of action, bias or not, was correct.

Steve kept his still face on Todoroki, waiting for him to speak.

Todoroki made a shrugging motion, huffing as he tried to rearrange the words he needed. "She does like you?" He asked. No, that was the opposite of what he was trying to say. "Does she like you?"

Steve stopped. He wanted to believe, but he could see the doubt that had been growing all day since Momo had called to say she didn't want to marry him.

So maybe there was a legitimacy to what Steve was trying to say. Maybe Todoroki had motives beyond just making sure he didn't lose a friend. But that wasn't the point.

He pointed to himself. "Fifteen." He pointed to Steve. "Seventeen." He gestured vaguely in the direction of Momo, her family, and the tea room. "Don't… need. Go home."

Steve's and Momo's families had been in support of him, and Momo had been too polite to turn him down outright. Todoroki knew he was the first to tell him his attempts to whisk Momo away weren't completely acceptable. Perhaps, at this point, he'd planted a seed of doubt.

"Hungry?" Steve asked, gesturing back down the hall. He'd stopped glaring, and his thoughts seemed occupied.

Todoroki nodded, and the two boys made their way back to the dining room.

A/N: So, first of all, this fic is now also on AO3 under the same name, if for some reason you prefer that. Second of all, massive apologies for this chapter taking three months. In that time, I wrote the draft of the first six chapters of this story, rewrote this one twelve times because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it, and got a job as a camp counselor teaching programming to high schoolers. . Unfortunately, that job takes up my day from 7 am to 10:30 pm Sunday through Friday right now. Fortunately, it'll be over in three weeks and I can write more! (Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but I just don't get much time for fanfiction in there.) Thanks for all your kind words and support, and see you at the next one!

By the way, this chapter was so long I had to split it in half and it still came out to 24 pages.


	3. Coefficients of Thermal Expansion

Coefficients of Thermal Expansion

"We've got to be quick," Futaba said. "We'll wash up in the kitchen so we can speak with your father before the boys get back." The balls of her feet slammed down in the way a woman who always wore high heels did.

"All right," Momo said, her stride more comfortable on the even floor. "It's frustrating we couldn't plan this out better, so there would be a time the three of us could talk."

"Well, Steve's leaving this weekend, so there wasn't another way to do this." She opened the door to the kitchen and ushered Momo inside, running their hands under water as she hurriedly poured soap over them.

"Mother," Momo asked hesitantly, "Do you agree with Dad's… assessment of the situation?"

"No, I don't," Futaba said, yanking the towel off of its rack and rolling hers and Momo's hands in it to dry them before pushing Momo back out into the dining hall.

Tsukasa was setting the teacups on the table, awkwardly sorting them around the plates that had been set out by the chef. On the table was his cell phone, open to a conversation he was trying to run with one hand. His head snapped up when Momo entered the room.

"Dad, we have to talk."

"Yes, we do, honey. I'm arranging to talk with Mark after the two of you leave tonight. It'll be a long phone call, but it needs to happen. We'll take care of it, don't worry."

Momo sighed with relief. "Oh, Dad, thank you so much. I really, really appreciate it." She moved to the table and started pushing the teacups so that they looked more thoughtfully placed.

"Of course. Your mother is right, we always treated you moving to America as an assumption. If we can get Mark to agree to let Steve live here, that would almost certainly work out for the better."

Momo's hand stopped over the cup she was holding. She'd assumed too quickly. Of course her father hadn't been convinced in the minutes since leaving the tea room.

"Now, there was something you wanted to say?" Tsukasa asked, moving his cell phone closer to her end of the table.

"Yes! I mean, yes. The topic of moving is… not what I meant at all," Momo said frustratedly, trying to keep her voice even. "Todoroki brought it up, but that's not what I have a problem with. This week was supposed to be about figuring out whether the engagement with Steve could go forward. I've met Steve, we've talked, and it's not going to work out. So, the answer as to whether it can go forward is no."

Tsukasa put the last of the teacups down and stood closer to her to face her. "Peaches, sweetheart, it's only Monday. You've barely given him a chance."

Momo paused as a dozen possible responses spun through her head. You've known Todoroki for twenty minutes, that's barely a chance. There won't be another opportunity to spend time with Steve. You're not thinking this through logically. But as she struggled to find a response that was suitably respectful and would suffice to get her point across, her mother began talking, causing Momo to jump.

"The Todoroki boy is well-spoken, well-mannered, he seems intelligent, and from what I can tell, he clearly has Momo's best interest at heart. We said we'd hold out judgement until we met him. We've met him and that's my judgement."

Momo looked up at her mother's stubborn face, set towards her father's in what was almost a challenge. She was relieved to have a voice on her side in the discussion, but resisted the urge to be optimistic. With her parents split, the situation could go either way. Either they'd wait things out in a battle of wills, or they'd find some compromise that may or may not be an effective solution to the problem.

"So he's charismatic?" Tsukasa asked. "That's not what we said we were looking for."

Just then, Steve and Todoroki returned from the bathroom. They weren't looking at each other as they silently made their way to their seats at the table.

Momo thought they looked a bit downtrodden, but the thought evaporated quickly as she kept her eyes on her father. Slowly, deliberately, she slid out the chair between her father and Todoroki and sat in it, folding her hands politely but sitting up straight and breathing evenly, determined to keep the conversation from derailing. Steve gave a discouraged glance at her choice of seating and took a place next to Futaba.

"Then what is?" She asked after both of her parents were seated. "If charisma isn't what you're looking for, what is?"

"Think about what we need, Momo," Tsukasa said, his overly patient demeanor matching hers. "Someone whom we can trust to help you have a safe household, physically and financially. Someone who can run the company since you're sticking with heroism. Someone with business skills."

Todoroki winced at the last one, masking it by passing the serving spoon to Steve.

"I actually went to work with your dad today, saw some of the labs," Steve supplied, trying to catch Momo's eye. He seemed nervous.

"How'd that go," Todoroki said flatly.

"Pretty well, right?" Steve said, looking at Tsukasa, who smiled mildly and nodded.

Momo stabbed her pork cutlet with her fork, spearing several pieces at once and chewing them slowly. She really wasn't sure where to go from here.

Even after a few short weeks of living away from home, the amount of control her parents had over her every decision suddenly felt far more restricting than it ever had. She'd gotten used to deciding what she wanted to eat for breakfast rather than whatever her mother deemed healthiest. She'd gotten used to following the new study schedule she'd made that took into account her new life over the old one she'd followed for years in this house. Despite truly loving her family and wanting to do what was best for them, the desire to please them curbed at every turn. It had been easier when she was away, but now that she was home, their insistence on managing her life was beginning to drive her up the wall. Particularly since the decision in question had such profound effects on the rest of her life.

Beside her, Todoroki was similarly tense. He'd used up his usual strategy of calmly explaining the situation from his perspective and it hadn't been as effective as he'd hoped. "Well, speaking of business sense, my father offered Yaoyorozu an internship at his agency earlier today."

At this, both of Momo's parents frowned. "Endeavor was… a concern for us," Futaba said, looking at her husband and folding her hands under her chin.

Crap.

"No, it's not like that, Mother," Momo explained, spinning her pasta with her fork to calm down. "I'll work with a sidekick and the management department. I won't be seeing Endeavor. We talked it through. He wants me to be able to run the agency at some point."

"So you wouldn't see him because you're an intern?" Tsukasa asked rhetorically. "How will that work when you're no longer just an intern? I can't imagine you can avoid an entire person who works in the same office for more than a few months even if you're working very hard to, and once you rise in rankings after graduation you'd have to work with him on a regular basis."

"No, we wouldn't," Todoroki said. "I have no intention of returning there, and Yaoyorozu wouldn't, either. She can use her experiences to get a job somewhere else."

"Yeah, but Momo doesn't even really need this job, does she?" Steve said, looking like he wasn't sure whether to contribute to the conversation at this point. "She's famous already, a little, right?"

"Do you know anything about how the world works?" Todoroki asked exasperatedly.

"Now, now, there is no need for this-" Tsukasa waved his fork at Steve and Todoroki- "To turn ugly. This is still a discussion and it needs to remain productive."

Despite being on opposing sides of this argument, Momo took her father's advice. She put her fork down and closed her eyes a moment, breathing. Between most of the five people sitting at this table, they could come to a rational decision. If they stayed on track and continued to share points until all had been addressed, the discussion could follow through until its logical termination. Being calm was the key here.

She reached down with her fork to grab another piece of meat when she heard a clink and opened her eyes.

Todoroki frowned at her plate. "Have you been… making forks?"

On her dish were an array of three forks, not counting the one in her hand. She must have been putting forks down and making new ones every time she stopped to participate in the discussion.

"Yeah. I… do that sometimes," she said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She began collecting the surplus forks on the side of her plate, reaching back into the pot to get food to replace what she'd made.

"Momo, honey, I wish you wouldn't do that. You know how much matter it takes to make those things. The food we eat is for nutrition and survival. You're fifteen now, almost sixteen, it's high time you were able to control your quirk at the dinner table," Futaba said, shaking her head.

Momo said nothing.

"Now, Todoroki," Futaba continued, "You said you weren't going back to your father's agency. What is your intention with the estate? Do you intend to live there after leaving UA?"

"Oh, no, definitely not," Todoroki said. "When it comes to inheritances, it's a toss-up between me and my siblings, but as for now, no."

Futaba nodded, considering.

Tsukasa huffed, listening to Todoroki but not looking happy about it. "Steve, how long is it until you graduate?"

"This May, sir."

"We'd have to talk to Mark about this, but if you came back here after graduating, you could come to work with me. I could train you personally. In that time, we could try this again with you and Momo. If the two of you find that you're getting along better, we could finalize that engagement agreement. How does that sound?"

Steve opened his mouth to say something, but noticed Todoroki glaring at him intently and closed it again. Tsukasa looked at Momo for her input.

Momo made one last attempt to come up with a response that would nudge the conversation gently towards her goals, but the words that came unbidden from her mouth were far from a gentle nudge.

"I'm not going to do that."

The motion at the table slowed to a stop. Even Todoroki looked up in surprise. Compliant, dutiful Momo wasn't one to talk about what she wanted, let alone stand up to her parents over it.

Tsukasa set his fork down, his expression turning serious. "Momo, this is a decision that affects all of us, for a very long time. We can't base it on one person's feelings over the course of a few days."

Momo wanted to say something back. Anything. She wanted to stand her ground, show that the decision she'd made was final. But she was finding it difficult to look her father in the eye. He was making doubt nag at the back of her mind. Maybe he was right. Maybe she was being selfish. She knew she looked uncertain.

Under the table, a cold foot nudged up against hers. Its pinky sort of rested on and looped around her pinky, pulling it in a strange direction that at least sent its intended message, that someone was there supporting her.

Maybe, sometimes, it was all right to be a little bit selfish.

"On Thursday, I turn sixteen. Legally, I can make my own marriage decisions. It is only my name on any of the paperwork. I told you I don't want to marry Steve. I was serious. I'm saying it now- find another solution or I'll go ahead with the one I brought to the table."

There was a beat of silence at the table as everyone digested what had just happened.

"Yeah, you know what? I'm out," Steve said. "I tried, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life with someone who was trying to marry somebody else and couldn't. That would suck. It's not fair to me." He reached across and started scooping himself more rice in a gesture of finality.

Tsukasa looked back at Momo in mild shock as he realized how the list of potential outcomes had shifted. His eyes slid to Todoroki, who might have looked a little bit pleased that Momo had used the argument he'd given her. Maybe that was just her imagination.

Futaba eyed the two of them, as if recognizing them as a unit. She frowned at Momo, signalling that she didn't approve of her outburst, but said nothing. They were past that now.

"All right, then. I still don't like this, but this is where we are. What, exactly, is the proposition you're making?" Tsukasa asked Todoroki.

"We get married. My father arranges to have your company considered more carefully for future grants from the Hero Network," Todoroki answered neutrally, his face showing only the slightest hint of irritation.

As her father asked more questions, Momo realized that her mother's assessment of Todoroki had been a little bit off. It wasn't that he was particularly respectful- he was just responding to the situation. When the conversation got tough, he wasn't disheartened. He wasn't intimidated by authority because he respected only those he deemed worthy of respect. He wasn't afraid to place himself above others if the situation called for it.

It was exactly what she'd just done. Momo realized that she had been influenced by their earlier conversation more than she'd thought. Maybe there was more to how much he might have rubbed off on her.

She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"Three weeks?!" Futaba exclaimed, yanking Momo out of her thoughts. "That is nowhere near enough time. That is completely absurd."

"That's Endeavor's condition," Momo cut in, recognizing where Todoroki might get blamed. Again. "Besides, it would just be paperwork. We'd take a weekend morning and run to the city hall. We don't need any preparation time."

"Does Endeavor not know what a marriage ceremony is?" Futaba said exasperatedly, rubbing her forehead with her napkin.

"Probably not," Todoroki said, as Momo mumbled something about "We can always do that later." They didn't look at each other.

"I see," Tsukasa said, nodding. "So what you're saying is that you two would be married in name only for the next little while, so that each family gets what it needs earlier, but you don't make anything official for…. what? A few years?"

Todoroki and Momo shrugged and nodded noncommittally.

Tsukasa sighed, looking intently at the wall as he thought.

"Alright, kids. Everyone out. Futaba and I need to talk for a few minutes. Unless you have anything else to ask them?"

Futaba shook her head.

"Ok. Go back to the tea room, or the hallway. I'll send someone to come get you when we're done."

Silently, Steve, Todoroki, and Momo stood and filed out of the dining hall, Steve swallowing the last of his meal on the way. When they arrived at the tea room, they took three individual seats and sat in an uncomfortable silence. Momo considered what she could even say and came up blank. Asking Steve how he was enjoying his time in Japan would just be rubbing salt in the wound, as would anything she could say to Todoroki. She was grateful when Steve's phone finally went off, uncomfortably loud in the stiff room, breaking the standard of inactivity they'd established. She pulled out her own cell phone, reading through the girls' 1-A group chat conversation she'd missed in the last few hours, and Todoroki skimmed some articles she couldn't make out.

At one point, Steve got a phone call and excused himself from the room. His father, presumably. Momo watched him leave, feeling a little guilty for his situation but knowing there wasn't much she could do about it. After he'd gone, she noticed Todoroki looking at her.

He hesitated before he spoke. "Yaoyorozu, you actually… want to do this, right?"

She blinked at him. "Of course. Yes. It was a good idea. Why? Is something wrong?"

He shook his head. "No. Nothing." He began to go back to reading.

"Do you still want to do this?" She looked at him quizzically.

"Yeah, I was just asking."

She nodded in acknowledgement and went back to what she was doing. Todoroki looked up when her phone went off, but they continued to wait in silence.

 **Mina Ashido: yaomomo we saved u leftovers 4 when u wake up. they are in fridge**

 **Me: Thank you so much, guys. I'm not asleep, I'm at my parents'. I'll be back later.**

 **Mina Ashido: oh ok**

 **Kyouka Jirou: Oh, right. Steve. We're all rooting for you, babe.**

 **Ochaco Uraraka: ^**

 **Tsuyu Asui: I am also.**

When Steve peeked back in and told them it was time to go back, Todoroki and Momo stood and filed out, the uncomfortable atmosphere taking its place back over the group.

Tsukasa and Futaba were still at their places, but they looked more unified. Their hands were folded in front of them, mirroring each other. When Todoroki and Momo sat down, Steve kept walking back out of the room to continue his phone conversation. Somehow, it made the atmosphere seem more genuine. What they were now doing was a real marriage negotiation.

"We're going to let you go through with this on a few conditions," Tsukasa said. "First, I want to speak with Endeavor on the phone before the week is out. I want confirmation of everything we've discussed here."

"I'll let him know," said Todoroki after a moment of consideration.

"Secondly, this is in no way a binding agreement. If I sense anything fishy going on, or if we don't like something we see in the next three weeks, I will do what is necessary to stop this from happening. I know Momo is the one with the legal power, but I am her father and I will find a way. Are we clear?"

The two teenagers nodded.

"And third," Tsukasa said, slowing down and leaning forward to look directly at Todoroki, "I am agreeing to this absolutely absurd situation because you two said the legal marriage in three weeks was paperwork only. You're not under any actual, spiritual binding. That means, in my eyes, this is simply an engagement and you will treat it as such. You might be married in the future, but you aren't married now, and you will behave accordingly. You two are fifteen. Do you understand?"

The two teenagers nodded again. Momo's face burned, and while she was sure Todoroki had a similar expression, she couldn't bring herself to look.

"I need a verbal agreement, especially from you."

"We understand."

"Um. Yes."

Momo was suddenly very glad neither of them had mentioned they'd come to this plan in the dark of her bedroom in the wee hours of the morning. Todoroki would have been mincemeat.

"All right. It's getting late. I want the two of you out of here so you can catch a bus before the wrong type of people start taking it."

They made their way back to the front of the house, picking up shoes and jackets. Momo hugged her parents, Todoroki thanked them for the food, and Steve shook both of their hands before they walked out. When they were safely outside, Momo exhaled deeply.

"Let's go home."

XXXXX

"I just want to thank you again, Mother. I know this was very sudden but I think this is going to work. I'm just grateful that you were able to get Dad to listen." Momo was alone in her room, talking to her mother as she usually did before bed.

"I wasn't sure, either, to be completely honest. I almost said no. Your father had some very good reasons for objecting."

"I know. He's trying to do the right thing."

"He loves you."

"Yeah, I know he does." Momo sighed and pulled her bare feet under her on the bed. "So what changed your mind? You said you liked Todoroki, but you just said you almost said no."

"I don't like how little control we have over the situation," Futaba said. "Just yesterday everything about this plan was completely different, and it's hard to think things all the way through so quickly. Your father wanted you to stay engaged to Steve for several years so you could have options, change your plans, back out if you needed to. Endeavor is deciding when and how this wedding is supposed to happen, and he doesn't even show up to talk to us. And on top of all of this, it's a boy we've never even met. But… I trusted him. Because of your sweater."

Momo furrowed her brow, looking at the plum sweater she'd just taken off and hung in her closet. "What about my sweater?"

There was a pause at the other end of the line. Futaba spoke carefully.

"I'm not even sure if I should tell you this. It's just something you do. Most girls your age, if they are trying to put a boy off or aren't comfortable with their presence, will wear something like a baggy sweater or a long shirt that covers most of their skin. It's a defense mechanism intrinsic to humans- the less exposed you are, the more safe you are, or at least feel. But you don't do this, Momo. Your skin is your weapon. You're used to being at your most powerful when you are most exposed. Covering yourself makes you vulnerable."

"I mean, I've gotten used to it-" Momo began.

"I watched you go out with Steve three times this weekend. Each time, your clothes became a little more revealing. It's probably part of why he thought you might one day be interested. But I saw how uncomfortable you were, to feel as if you had to be ready to defend yourself."

Momo's fidgeting stopped as she began to understand where her mother was going with this. She sat back slowly against her headboard.

"You're not used to boys actually having a conflict over you," Futaba continued. "Yes, there have been a few who tried to take you out on dates and some of them at the same time, but having two potential suitors argue over you with your father isn't something you're used to and I'm glad. But of all the things I expected my daughter to wear to such an occasion, the very last was a turtleneck and leggings.

"I was surprised. And that's why I said yes. Because despite two difficult, stressful situations today, you still felt completely safe."

Momo didn't know what to say to this.

"Ah, thank you so much for your input, Mother. Good night. Sweet dreams. I love you." She hung up the phone.

It was the truth. She tried to make excuses, tried to explain it away. Could a judgement really be made based on what she had worn on a single day, when she had intended to dress nicely anyway? She had to admit to herself that the answer was yes. The question was what to do with that information.

She decided to do nothing with it. She already knew she trusted Todoroki. If other people knew that, so be it. They'd be married in a week and a half. Now was not the time to be getting worked up over little things like this.

XXXXX

"So there's not an actual problem with the Mark VIs, it's just that the new color schemes look too much like the Mark IIIs and people are thinking, consciously or subconsciously, that they're a step back," Midoriya finished explaining, stuffing his clothes in his locker and ruffling his hair a few more times in the mirror to help it dry. "I'd still go with the Vs, though, if you're looking to buy one. They're cheaper and the specs are close enough that it doesn't really matter."

Physical training was over for the day and the boys were getting ready to return to the classroom for final announcements and cleanup.

Iida crossed his arms. "I believe you that the performance hasn't gone down, but the competitors have improved enough that I think just going to a different seller would be a good investment in the long run."

Todoroki watched Sero exit one of the shower stalls and started to get up to take his place, but stopped when Rikidou beat him to it. He sat back down, plopping his towel in his lap and turning back to the conversation Midoriya and Iida were having.

"Hey Todoroki," Kaminari called from across the aisle. "It's Tuesday. I thought you and Yaomomo were hitting each other with sticks after school. Why are you trying to shower now?"

"Your fairly creepy attention to my schedule aside, I fell into the mud pit," Todoroki replied, shaking yet more dirt and leaves out of his hair. "It's uncomfortable and it's hard to hide when your hair is white."

"Oh. Got it. Sorry for the creeping, man, just that Mineta mentioned you guys' practice earlier and it was fresh in my mind. Hey, how's that going, anyway?"

Todoroki blinked, the events since he and Momo had started bojutsu practice flashing through his mind. "Fine."

"'Fine' as in…. What kind of fine?" Mineta asked, waddling in and sitting uncomfortably close to Todoroki on the bench. "Details."

"She shows me how to do something. I do it. She shows me how to do something else. I do that," Todoroki said, getting up and rearranging things in his bag to help resist the urge to pick up Mineta by his collar and place him elsewhere. "Exactly what you'd expect from bojutsu lessons."

"Oh you can't be serious, Todoroki!" Mineta whined. "No offense, but you're the worst person to have gotten this opportunity. You're not using it for anything useful." Mineta paused, thinking. "Hold on, how did you get this opportunity?"

Todoroki sighed, not making eye contact with the smaller boy. "I approached her one morning before class and said 'Yaoyorozu, will you show me how to fight with a bo staff?' and she said something along the lines of 'Sure, I'm free Tuesdays and Fridays' and since then she's been showing me how to fight with a bo staff on Tuesdays and Fridays."

He looked down at Mineta, worse face was comically screwed into a look of intense focus. "Is that exactly how you said it? Where were you?"

At this point, Iida stepped in between the two, his bag already over his shoulder as he prepared to head out. "Mineta, Todoroki has been trying to get a turn at the showers for fifteen minutes. Please leave him alone so he can prepare for the end of class." He peered sternly at Mineta.

"Oh, come on, class rep. Don't tell us you don't think about it. Doesn't it get a little old knowing none of the girls will throw any of us a bite?" Kaminari said, not looking at Iida as he spun the combination on his own locker.

"Don't worry about Iida, Kaminari," Mineta said, looking defeated. "He's a rich kid. His parents probably already chose him a wife and he doesn't have to worry about trying to impress anyone like the rest of us."

If it weren't for the fact that doing so would have revealed his personal connection to the topic, Todoroki would have facepalmed. It couldn't not follow him for one single day. He prayed Mineta dropped it after this, but he knew it was probably too much to ask for.

"No, my parents are not arranging a marriage for me. I simply choose not to discuss these things in school. I'm sure at some point I'll have a girlfriend, and I know, at least, that that time is not now." Iida began packing his things into his bag.

Todoroki saw Kirishima leave the shower and took the opportunity to leave the conversation, balling up his towel in his hands and walking briskly towards the open stall. Mineta noticed him moving.

"What about you, Todoroki? You're loaded. Did your parents set you up?"

All he had asked was to be left alone. Alas, fate would not allow it.

"That certainly sounds like something that is absolutely none of your business, Mineta." He continued walking towards the showers, not making eye contact with the smaller boy.

"Oh. My. God. Do you have pictures?" Crocodile tears were beginning to form in Mineta's eyes.

Todoroki turned halfway to face him, planting himself in front of the door to the showers to ensure he didn't lose his place in line. "They didn't arrange anything, and if they did, I wouldn't tell you," he said, grateful that by a few small technicalities he was telling the truth. He noticed Midoriya staring at him from the corner of his eye, and realized that his own nostrils were flaring slightly.

"Oh come on, I'm just asking!" Mineta said as Todoroki shut the door of the shower stall in his face with more force than was necessary.

"All right, well, don't," he said back, turning his back to the door and trying to wash off the conversation on the other side.

When he got out of the shower, the other boys had already left for class, one or two stragglers tying shoes or running back to retrieve lost items. Todoroki dried himself frantically, and when he pulled the towel away from his eyes he saw that Midoriya was sitting waiting for him, both of their bags packed.

"Um. Hey," Todoroki said, the other boy not unwelcome but certainly not expected.

"Dude, is everything okay? Is your dad trying to put you in some kind of quirk marriage? I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier." He looked fearful for his friend.

"Everything's fine. Thanks for your concern." He didn't outright deny it this time.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't notice anything was up until today. I've had this internship and I haven't really been paying attention and-"

"Midoriya, it's fine. I know you're busy, and besides, everything's under control. I don't expect you to pay attention to every detail of my life," Todoroki said gently.

"Oh, that means it's happening. I was right. Oh no. I knew your dad was into this sort of thing but it never even occurred to me that he might try to do it to you. That's heavy. Do you need anything?"

Todoroki sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "You know how much I hate, hate quirk marriages. So you know how angry I would be if everything wasn't under control." He paused for emphasis. "Everything's under control."

Midoriya looked relieved at this. "Okay. I don't mean to butt in, I just wanted to make sure everything was alright."

"It is."

"Do you want to… talk about it?"

"Not really. Focus on school, don't get behind. I'll worry about me."

"Ok. I'll admit now I'm a little curious, but I won't pry."

"Please don't. Worry about yourself for once."

"You're probably right."

XXXXX

On Thursday, Momo did not go to the town hall to officialize her marriage agreement with Steve.

There were too many kids in the dormitory to make a big deal out of everyone's birthday, but it was acknowledged. Rikidou made cupcakes, and there was singing. Steve texted her well-wishes and she responded telling him she hoped he had a safe trip back to America.

That night, the girls sat at the kitchen counter after their normal bedtime eating cupcakes. The lights were low and the smells from the oven still hung in the air. It wasn't particularly special or different from the hangout sessions they usually had on the weekends, but Momo appreciated the fact that she'd had some kind of celebration for her birthday, however informal.

"So what'd you get?" Hagakure asked from her seat on the adjacent counter.

"Kaminari and Kirishima got me a card thanking me for tutoring them this year, Jirou got me some vouchers for ice cream, thanks again by the way, Todoroki gave me this variety box of exotic tea, and Iida gave me one of those baggies of candy he gives to everyone on their birthday. And I didn't open the box from Mineta." Momo cautiously waved the purple box in front of her. "Anyone interested?"

A chorus of 'no's took over the kitchen.

"I got one of those boxes from Mineta on my birthday, too," Mina said. "I didn't open it, either, but after a couple of weeks it started smelling really strange and I'd suggest throwing it away. I don't think it was food."

The girls laughed and made faces of disgust at each other.

"Don't let him know you're single now," Jirou laughed. "It'll only get worse."

"Yeah, how did that go?" Tsuyu asked. "The way you described it, the guy seemed pretty insistent if I remember correctly. How'd you get him to back down?"

Momo laughed nervously. "I… talked to him. I guess he understood that it didn't make sense and it wouldn't end well."

"Was that the thing you had up your sleeve?" Jirou asked. "Usually your 'plans' don't involve just talking people down."

"Yeah, well, it was a fairly involved conversation, you could say." Momo cleared her throat. "It's over now." She made a motion like she wanted to move on from the conversation.

This wasn't enough for a good half of the girls, however.

"So that's it? Your parents just dropped it?" Hagakure asked skeptically. "Or are they making you get married to somebody else?"

Momo surveyed the room. She wanted to talk to someone, really talk it out. But they trusted Todoroki, so if they knew, the conversation would turn to gossip and meaningless chatter. If she were in any danger, the girls would be supportive and want to know about her feelings, but she wasn't, and she wouldn't want them to think that she was.

She knew what she was going to do. The best thing to tell them was the truth, at least part of it. There were certain things that it was all right for them to know, and she wanted to be at least a little bit candid. Besides, it was her birthday, and meaningless chatter with her friends was alright once in awhile.

"Well, yeah. They are. It's just the way these things work."

The shifting of chairs was not even silent. Every member of the conversation slid at least a foot closer to her, expressions ranging to amusement, to concern, to invisible.

"That seems odd," said Tsuyu, the concerned one. "Will you be taking extra precautions to ensure this doesn't end like the last one? Seems there's an equal chance he'll be just as unviable."

"Ah… yes. It'll be fine," she said, scooting her chair back a little.

"So you've met him?" Mina asked, her face uncomfortably close. "Is he cute?"

"Is he at least nice?"

"Have you seen his abs?"

"Wait, did you meet him or not?"

Momo shrunk a little, bewildered. "Slow down. One at a time, at least," she said.

The girls paused, collecting themselves.

"First, have you actually met the guy?" Jirou asked, serious.

"Yes."

"In person? Did you talk?"

"Yes and yes."

"Okay, what's his name?"

Momo froze. "I can't tell you that." It was the first thing that came to mind.

The girls looked at each other, the story now far more interesting.

"So is he, like, famous?" Mina asked.

"Haven't you been paying attention?" Hagakure said to Mina. "Momo's rich. She can only marry rich people unless she runs off. If he isn't famous, his family is." Hagakure's shoulders turned to Momo for confirmation. "Right?"

"Right," Momo said uncertainly. Yes, Endeavor was famous, but that wasn't why she wasn't telling them.

"What's he look like?" Mina asked.

"Not answering that one, either," Momo said.

"Fine. How's this: is he cute?"

"I'm not sure how to answer that," Momo said carefully. "You and I have different definitions of what qualifies as 'cute'."

"Augh, this is so frustrating. But also exciting!" Mina insisted. "Umm, would you say he's better or worse looking than, say, Todoroki?"

Momo struggled to keep a straight face and coughed to cover it up. "I'd say… about the same."

"Nice," Mina said.

"Do you know what his quirk is?" Tsuyu asked. "I know sometimes that's a factor for some people's parents."

"Well, yes, actually. I do know what it is. It is very strong, but my parents didn't think that was important." Momo felt better hiding some things since the rest of the girls knew she wasn't telling everything anyway.

"Do you like him?"

Uraraka had asked the question.

Momo looked back at her. She didn't know how to answer. If one of them had asked her outright, in another situation, whether she liked Todoroki, she probably would have said no, or at least "he's a great classmate." But they weren't asking that. Uraraka wanted to know something that very importantly needed to have an answer of yes. As much fun as they were having, they still wanted her to be all right. If she said no, they would think she was in some kind of bad situation. And, on some level, 'no' wasn't really her answer anyway.

"It's too soon. We only arranged this Monday."

"That's understandable, I guess. Does he at least seem trustworthy?"

"Definitely." She said, suddenly remembering the conversation with her mother, and then regretting how quickly she'd answered.

Mina started laughing. "Yaomomo, you're blushing!"

"Wait, really?" She reached up to feel her cheeks, and found under her folded arms a tiny sprocket, two bolts, and a lock washer. "It's probably nothing."

"No, no this is good!" Hagakure urged. "This means you like him!"

"Like I said, too soon to tell," Momo insisted, picking up the pieces and sticking them in the drawer next to the sink where she kept all of her extra parts while her cheeks burned redder still. The girls were laughing.

"Guys, calm down," Tsuyu said. "Momo, we don't have to talk about this if you don't want to. It is your birthday after all."

Momo smiled back at her gratefully. "Sorry, guys. It's just a little weird. If you've got something you want to ask, I can try to answer, but-"

"No, that's fine!" Mina exclaimed. "We don't wanna make you feel uncomfortable. That much. New topic! Tsuyu, how's your love life going?"

"Oh, that is not what I meant at all," Tsuyu sighed.

XXXXX

"Kyouka, are you turning in for the night?" Momo asked when the other girls had gone upstairs. It was almost midnight. They'd stayed up talking about everything- current events, school, the B class, what they would do if they had a different quirk. They'd be tired in the morning, but it wouldn't be too bad.

"Probably not. The sugar's got me wired, I guess. I'm thinking of watching something for a little while when I get upstairs to wind down."

"Can I talk to you? In your room, I mean. Or mine, I just want to talk." Momo helped Jirou load the last of the dishes into the dishwasher, trying to speed the conversation along.

"Uh, sure. I'm all ears." Jirou looked at her friend quizzically. "Is this about… the thing?"

"Yeah. I can't really tell everybody, but I want you to know what's really going on." Momo wasn't nervous. She knew she wanted Jirou in on it.

"Okay," Jirou agreed, her interest piqued by the choice of words. "My lips are tight."

"Thank you."

The two girls made their way up the girls' elevator and into Jirou's suite. Jirou turned some light rock music on the speakers closest to the hall and pulled Momo towards the back of the room, where they sat on her bed, socks thrown haphazardly into the middle of the floor.

"So," said Jirou. "Please tell me what's happening. Because at this point I agree with Tsuyu- I don't like the sound of this situation. I'm not the one who grew up in an arranged marriage, but still."

Momo nodded. "Yeah, I'm not really sure what to tell everyone and what not to. I'm sorry if I made it seem like I'm in some kind of dire circumstances, but I'm really not." She inhaled, thinking about how to go about telling the story. "Tsuyu is right. I could have turned down Steve and the next one could easily have been just as bad or worse. So I made sure that wouldn't be the case."

Jirou leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "So this _was_ your plan."

"Yes."

"Your parents let you choose?"

"I… found someone else who was in a similar situation, someone who could help my parents get the funding they needed. It took some convincing, but they let me just swap the engagement out."

Jirou frowned. "So you meet some other guy and just decide you're gonna promise to marry him?" She looked more than doubtful.

"No, no, no. I already knew him. In fact, that's sort of where I was going with this. You know him, too."

Jirou blinked. "Um. Okay. Is this... someone we went to middle school with?" She gasped. "Don't tell me it's that guy with the sparkly hair."

"No!" Momo said. "I said I liked his hair once and you never let me live it down! It's Todoroki!"

The tension in the room evaporated as Jirou processed what she'd just said. Her face turned red and she put her hand over her mouth.

"It's… okay," Momo said. "You can laugh."

Jirou's laughter shrilled above the level the music had any hope of masking. Her small frame shook, and it took her a few moments to regain her composure.

"You're serious?"

"I'm serious."

"How did that happen?" She asked, blinking back tears.

"He happened to meet Steve last week at bojutsu. Turned out his dad was trying to marry him off to a girl who was secretly a lesbian. We talked about it Sunday, and Monday afternoon we talked to Endeavor. After that it was just a matter of getting Steve to drop it. He'd already seen Todoroki as competition, so he pretty much took it as a defeat."

"Okay, you're right, that was slick," Jirou said. "That's a pretty fast turnaround."

"Yeah, but I have to give credit to Todoroki. It was really his idea."

"Seems like you guys pulled it off." Jirou raised an eyebrow. "You two make a pretty good team."

Momo pursed her lips. "Oh, stop. I mean, you're right, we do, but that expression just changes the connotation too much."

Jirou put her eyebrow back down, but kept a small, sly smile. "So when's the wedding? Fall after senior year?"

"Next weekend."

The smile dropped. "Next weekend? Holy shit!" She coughed, realizing what she'd said in front of Momo. "Sorry."

"It's fine. That's essentially the reaction I was expecting."

"Dude. That's ridiculous! I mean, yeah, Todoroki is a better choice than the other dickwad, but it's been like three days! The rest of us aren't even going on dates and you're getting married? Aren't you supposed to have, like, time to get comfortable with the other person? Last week he was just the guy who sat next to you in class."

"Yeah, well, it was Endeavor's condition. Besides, it's not like this is some permanent commitment. We're just going down to the town hall."

Jirou furrowed her brow at Momo. "Yaomomo. That's what a marriage is."

Momo shook her head. "We're splitting up after graduation. We're just doing this to get our parents off our back." Her stomach sank. "Did you think I meant otherwise?"

Jirou paused, her expression softening. "Oh. Yeah, actually. I did. Ever since we met you've been, among other things of course, one of those girls who gets married for some good it will do for the family. I'm sorry, I guess it didn't occur to me you were taking advantage of the situation that way. I was just thinking this was a pretty good match for you."

Momo didn't know what to say.

"Well, wow," she said. "I didn't think you'd see it that way, but I guess it makes sense that you would." She paused again, her mind going in several directions at once. Jirou was a perceptive person and Momo valued her opinion, but this was uncharted territory. A pretty good match? By social standards, of course, but that didn't seem to be what she meant.

"Still, I mean, that's pretty sweet," Jirou said. "To do that for you. Whatever happens, he's a good friend."

"Well, yeah, I'm glad he came to me about this," Momo said. "But it's not like the other girl was a good choice, either."

"Really?" Jirou asked. "If she was trying to hide the fact that she was gay, couldn't Todoroki just as easily have fake-married her so she could get her folks off her back? He didn't have to do this."

"You're right," Momo said. "I didn't think of that." She was caught between a swell of gratitude and a burst of shame that she'd had to rely on Todoroki yet again.

"Hey. Don't look all down like that. It just means he cares." A thought occurred to Jirou. "Not to beat an apparently dead horse, but he could actually like you."

"I know," Momo said. "I think it's possible, but not probable. I don't really know what an interested Todoroki would look like."

"He visited you in the hospital, he voted for you for class president, he picks you as a teammate pretty consistently," Jirou said. "I think it's a fair chance. Has he ever said anything about how you look?"

"Once he complimented the yukata I was wearing at a festival. I made it, so I'm not sure if that counts towards my appearance or my craftsmanship." A small part of the back of her mind pointed out how well she seemed to remember that part of the occasion. She brushed it aside. Forcefully.

"That means he at least knows that you're female," Jirou said. "What would you do if he did?"

Momo leaned forward and put her head in her hands. "I don't know."

"Jeez, that's a dramatic 'I don't know.'"

"I don't know," Momo groaned again. "I have literally never had a choice. Every single time I have ever thought 'hey, that guy's cute,' the next thought has immediately been 'but he's not Steve!' and that was the end of it. When Todoroki and I went to that festival, I went home and said to myself, 'Wow, that was fun and I can never do that again.'"

"So now you're like everybody else," Jirou said.

"I guess I am."

"Well, now you've got plenty of time to figure it out." Jirou paused. "Are you at least glad you get to make the decision?"

Momo breathed. If it hadn't been Steve, or if he'd been a better person, would she have been happy with her situation? Maybe. She didn't know. It just was the way it was. "I'm glad things turned out the way they did, that's for certain."

"Then, for now, that's what matters."

XXXXX

Todoroki had a problem.

"You're rushing," Momo said at bojutsu practice on one particular Friday. "You're hesitating, and then you're rushing. It's like you're… figuring out the move, and then you get distracted, and then you try to make up for it by doing the motion really fast. Is there something on your mind today?"

She hadn't noticed until they'd started sparring, but then it had been painfully obvious.

"Didn't sleep well," he said, as if that had anything to do with it.

Momo straightened, her forehead relaxing from its accusatory posture. Her dark eyes softened. "That's unfortunate. Do you want to cut practice short today? There are other things left to accomplish today after all."

The problem wasn't that he was spending any more time or attention looking at her more closely. He'd realized it had always been there, the way his eyes followed her just a second too long when she left the room, the way he remembered the things she said a bit more clearly than he did for others. He wasn't aware of it every day; most of the time it was little more than a tug at the left of his vision when they were sitting in class, but some days there was more to it. This was one such day.

"It's fine. We can stop early to get things done, but we don't need to stop now. We have plenty of time." Part of this had to do with nerves surrounding the activities they had planned for later, part of him didn't want to cut the time they had to practice together short. Shamefully little of his consideration had to do with actual improvement of his bojutsu skills.

"Sounds like a plan. Should we say we'll stop to get something to eat at six o'clock?"

Twenty-five minutes. "Deal."

By the end of the twenty-five minutes, Todoroki had evened out his rushing habit enough to make actual progress. It was productive.

"So. Food," Todoroki said, mopping his face with a towel. "Do we have to find something that contains more… iron? Or what?"

"Doesn't really matter," Momo answered, as if she'd explained this before. "Fatty foods work better in the long run, but for small items like this, it's negligible."

"I see."

They walked out of the arena and off the school grounds. Down the street was a small gaggle of cheap restaurants the seniors frequented during their lunch time. Since moving the students to on-campus housing, they'd seen a lot more attention from the student populace. They kept walking past this area, beyond where they were likely to see people they knew.

Now that he was aware of his bias towards her, he was starting to analyze his every thought. Was it rude to be looking at her in this way, when they were using each other to escape an unwanted romance with someone else? If it had always been there, had he been performing differently in their sparring matches because she was his partner? Or would it go away in a little while, when this whole ordeal died down and he wasn't forced to think about it every time they had to do something like what they were doing this afternoon?

They huddled over a phone, looking for restaurants in the unfamiliar part of town. They settled on a brunch cafe that customers claimed had the best steak sandwich in the region. It had two little dollar signs next to the name, didn't get a lot of traffic at dinner time, and boasted 4.7 stars. Most small restaurants and businesses allowed some amount of quirk use, being on privately owned property. Most importantly, it looked quiet.

"I'll have a… number six. Two of them," Momo said to the cashier, tapping her long, slender fingers together as she considered, folding them neatly into each other when she came to a decision. Her posture changed slightly when she stepped aside to let him order, no longer the center of anyone's attention. She thought.

They were getting married the next day.

"I guess I'll have a… what did you get? A six? I guess I'll go with that," he said, realizing too late that he had no idea what was on it. He fumbled around in his pockets for his wallet, not meaning to give Momo enough time to try to object to his paying for it.

"No, this is fair," he insisted, shoving the money towards the (somewhat bewildered) cashier before she could get to him.

Momo's expression turned to mild frustration, but it faded quickly. "Thank you, anyway," she said, looking down.

He wasn't sure whether her embarrassment over him paying was a good thing or not.

They took their seats at a booth at the back of the restaurant, facing each other. It would be a few minutes before their food arrived. Momo opened her bag and pulled out a fresh yellow folder with two or three sheets of paper poking out the top. She started to open it on the table but stopped.

"Thank you for doing this, really," she said, looking at her hands for a moment before making eye contact with him. "I'm very grateful."

He blinked at her, uncertain. "We were both in the same situation. It needed to be done."

Momo looked like she was about to say something, but closed her mouth and shook her head. She started to open the folder again, but decided she had one more thing to say. "I told Jirou about what's going on. For everyone else, I don't really care, but with her it would be too much of a lie just in not telling her. I hope that's okay."

He nodded. "Midoriya knows. He doesn't know it's you, but that's it. Some of the other guys were around, but they don't know anything."

"Yeah, the girls knew about Steve, and now they know there's somebody else, but that's it."

Todoroki raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were going to tell them everything was over? So you could, you know." Date other people.

Momo shrugged. "It's not important to me. I was never going to anyway, because of Steve."

"Yeah, me neither. But it was more because I knew whoever it was would have to deal with my father. Not worth it."

When they got their food, Momo ate quickly and pulled out her folder of papers, thumbing through them and spreading out what she needed in front of her. Todoroki squinted curiously at the upside-down words over his sandwich. "Coefficients of Thermal Expansion," was the title of the one closest to him.

"I've never seen you need this much paper before," he said.

"I've never made this alloy before," she replied. "When you're finished, give me your hand."

Todoroki blinked, understanding what she was doing. He was surprised she was putting as much thought into this as she was. It made him feel strange, but he pushed that thought to the side, stuffing the last of his sandwich into his mouth as he reached across the table to hesitantly extend his fingers.

She picked up his hand and turned it over in front of her. When she began running her fingers between his, feeling the relative size between them, he looked away.

The texture of her hands was unusual. Waxy, but calloused where her strange pores mutated her skin. They felt like they should have been cold, but they weren't.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I have to be able to touch things with my hands."

"It's fine," he said.

"Well, it's just, your face is a little red."

"It's always a little red."

"Hilarious. You know what I mean."

Todoroki said nothing. When he glanced up from where he'd been staring at the table, she was still focused on his hand.

Momo took one last look at the first sheet of paper, turned his hand over to face upwards, and placed something in it. A small metal band, nearly black, with etchings of the triangular pattern that covered the side of Momo's hero costume and most of the objects she created. She stacked the papers and moved them to the side, placing her plate under his hand instead.

"Heat it up as much as you can," she said, leaning back to create some distance between herself and the table. "We have to make sure it doesn't deform with temperature change."

Todoroki held his hand over the plate and complied, making a fist and covering the area with his other hand to avoid burning anything around them.

"Is it loose?" Momo asked, peering through his fingers. "It shouldn't be."

"Don't think so," he said.

"Take it off, freeze it, and try to put it back on."

When it became apparent that the ring would keep its shape, he slipped it off, regulated it back to room temperature, and held it up to examine it more closely. "What is this stuff?"

"A specific arrangement of hafnium, nitrogen, and carbon." Momo said proudly. "It wasn't successfully synthesized until 2152."

"That is really impressive," he said, shifting his focus back to her. "Seriously."

Momo looked down, pinking. "Thanks."

When he got back to his room, he looked around, scanning for a place to keep the ring. He wouldn't wear it after tomorrow, not for anything other than very specific occasions, but it would still feel wrong to shove it into the back of a drawer and leave it. It needed something more fitting.

Todoroki walked to his dresser and picked up the empty matryoshka doll that lived there, sliding it open carefully despite knowing he'd long since removed the flashbang mechanism inside. He put the ring in and snapped it back shut, replacing it on the surface of the dresser. It would be safe there.

XXXXX

Two weeks later, they got up early on a Saturday morning and prepared to make their way to the city hall. Momo double checked that her yellow folder still had the papers Endeavor had signed tucked opposite the thermal expansion charts. She opened a bookmark on her computer- a magazine ad with a cream lace knee-length dress and a belt at the waist. After examining the pictures one last time, she closed her eyes and pulled it out of her chest in a bundle, shaking it to smooth out the wrinkles before pulling it over her head.

She put on a pair of black leggings and grabbed a sweater from her closet, heading downstairs to find her shoes in the oversized basket they kept by the door. Todoroki was waiting for her in an armchair, his head slumped back against the cushion. He slinked out of it when she found her shoes at the bottom of the pile, and they tried to get past their classmates and out the door without attracting too much attention.

"Where are you guys going?" Uraraka asked, curious. "Are you not eating breakfast?"

"Is it a date?" Kaminari chimed in.

"We're going to go do some paperwork for something we talked to Aizawa about," Momo explained coolly.

"And if it was," Todoroki said to Kaminari, "it would be none of your business."

The bus was crowded, but the mass of people wasn't enough to shake the early morning chill. Momo sidestepped when they reached a stop, catching a different handrail so she could stand to Todoroki's left, opposite where she'd been.

She caught him eyeing her at the motion and flushed. "Sorry," she said. "It's just… cold over there."

Todoroki nodded. "It's fine. Everybody does it."

"Oh. Okay then."

His hand twitched upwards, as if he was about to do something, but he thought better of it and put it back down. The awkward silence threatened to take over again before he spoke.

"My mom wants to meet you at some point."

It was yet another jab at the picture they'd created- of a marriage that was just a temporary illusion. Everyone expected them not to like each other at this point. And everyone was proceeding as if it was forever anyway.

When they arrived at the building they were looking for, Todoroki leafed through the folder and produced the papers his father had signed. The clerk took them, smiled and said "Congratulations," attaching a second piece of paper to the first and handing Momo a pen.

As she reached over to sign her name in careful script, an old Buddhist homily came to the front of her mind unbidden. It was used in marriage ceremonies, real ones, the ones where families and friends knew what was going on and the couple involved was looking towards an exciting future. It went, "Nothing happens without a cause. The union of this man and woman has not come about accidentally but as the foreordained result of many past lives. This tie can therefore not be broken or dissolved."

Momo pushed the papers back across the desk, placing the pen back in its cup with the others. The woman, still smiling, filed the paperwork behind her and signalled to someone that she was ready for the next appointment.

Their families did know what was going on, and some of their friends. They were doing this for the future. For all intents and purposes, this was real. Her mind searched for reasons it wasn't, and didn't come up with anything good.

The way home was quiet. They talked about school, they talked about how the weather was going to be for the afternoon, they talked about the road construction and whether they needed to pick up any food on the way back. But the easy way they'd talked about the two of them was gone. It wouldn't be the same conversation. There wasn't anything to say, or maybe there was.

When she got to her room, she took off the ring and put it in the back of a drawer, where anyone who found it would assume it meant something else. She saw herself, in the mirror, reach up to unbutton the back of her dress and froze.

She was covered from head to toe.

The dress had three-quarter sleeves, and it came almost up to her collar. The belt and the buttons were placed such that getting out of it, exposing anything, would have been unreasonably difficult. It was the kind of thing she looked for when shopping for all of her clothes, and yet this time she'd completely overlooked it. Not to mention the fact that she was wearing leggings.

Two instances can't make a pattern, she tried to think, but couldn't.

She couldn't deny it. As odd as the situation was, and how uncomfortable she was with the lies she was telling the people close to her, she didn't feel like she was taking a risk. She felt safe.

Momo finished unbuttoning the dress, awkwardly reaching behind her back. She hung it on a hanger and put it in the back of her closet, telling herself she might wear it again. She knew she probably wouldn't.

She pulled out her phone and texted Jirou. _It's done._

XXXXX

After the 'wedding', if it could even be called that, suddenly everything died down. They didn't have to talk to worried family members, and Momo's friends didn't bug her about her personal business. Her parents left town for a few weeks to visit remote branches of the company where rehires and purchases were being made. Things just went back to normal, exactly as planned. Over the next few weeks, things were almost eerily quiet.

One morning, a Monday, Todoroki was talking to Midoriya before class began when he had to excuse himself upon Aizawa's entrance.

"Excuse me, sensei. I have a request."

"What is it?" Aizawa looked, predictably, like he wanted to get on with the day.

"I just got a text message from my brother-in-law. My sister was supposed to have her baby this Saturday but apparently she's just gone into labor. I'd like to go to the hospital during lunch hour to see her. It's only about three blocks down and I'm sure I could make it back in time."

Aizawa considered for a moment. "All right. If you get back in time for class, I will make sure you face no repercussions."

"Thank you, Sensei." Todoroki made his way back to his desk.

Things didn't go as planned.

During the second block of the day, Mic assigned a test to the class. After a few minutes of silence, footsteps started echoing in the hallway, and teachers' voices could be heard calling out to each other.

"What is going on out there?" Mic asked quietly as he stepped to look out the door.

"It's probably the bomb threat," Kaminari said.

"What bomb threat?"

"The hospital down the street is under some kind of attack. They're trying to evacuate as many people as they can because someone said the bomb might take out the backup generator, but some low-level villains are keeping people from leaving. Apparently they've already cut the power, and there aren't many heroes available to respond," Kaminari said, reading from the phone he'd hidden under his desk.

"Which hospital?" Todoroki asked. His breath was visible.

"The one down the street on fourth and main."

Todoroki didn't close his test book or gather his things. He stood up and walked to the front of the room, where Mic was standing in front of the door.

"Excuse me," he said. "I'm leaving."

A/N: so Horikoshi just released some new info about the kids' schedules. Turns out they have school on Saturdays. I'm going to just call this one a loss, since having Saturdays off have already been referenced in this fic, and just say that this deviates from the canon information in one small detail. I'd apologize, but I don't think it's really necessary since nobody knew. Thanks for your patience.

Special thanks to milamon and FlaminkoMage, who helped me embrace my cheesy side. And, as usual, to Haresh.

Also, look forward to the next chapter, which features the beginnings of the reason this one has a blood and gore trigger warning! See you next time! Plus ultra!


	4. Cartography

A/N: I don't know anything about hospitals and I don't know anything about bombs. I do know about electronics, though, so I made up my own bomb. If there's a better bomb to use in this situation, well, sorry. I don't care. If I totally screwed up everything about a hospital, though, my bad.

I also have to apologize, sincerely, for the long wait. I intended to post this as a short chapter and it was very nearly finished three weeks after the previous one was posted, but something came up. Something that lasted several months. But, as usual, I will assure you that I have known how this series will end since I posted the first chapter. The final scene is already written. I just… also have to write everything that comes before that.

Part 4: Cartography

"What?" Mic asked, bewildered.

"My sister is in that hospital right now. I am going over there. I will deal with whatever I need to when I get back, but I am going," Todoroki insisted.

Even from the back of the room, Momo could see that Todoroki's fists were flushed with heat and cold that he was struggling to contain. This was worse than nerves. This was fear.

"I'm going, too." Midoriya piped up. "They don't have enough pros around, and we're here."

The whole class was restless and Midoriya's words only made it worse. A classroom full of people united in their collective desire to protect others faced with a situation that seemed to scream for their expertise.

"We all remember the last time Todoroki insisted on trying to do something like this by himself. It wasn't exactly ideal. I'm going," Tsuyu said.

"I'm in," said Tokoyami.

"Attacking a hospital?" Bakugou said. "Sounds like some cowardly fuckers want to get themselves killed."

"I have to-" Momo started.

"Quiet!" Mic shouted over the rising din. The intercom on his hip was crackling, and he pressed a button to receive the call. "Come in?"

"All hero teachers currently with heroics classes need to select four licensed students to take to the Blossom Valley General Hospital. More students will be summoned in fifteen minutes if they are still needed. The first transport will leave in five minutes."

The class looked at Mic, waiting for instructions.

"What specifically is needed?" Mic asked the voice on the other side.

"Pro heroes on the scene are rounding up escaping villains. Selected students in years one and two should focus on rescue and evacuation, as well as clearing paths through locked doors and blocked hallways. The bomb has not been found and no demands have been made."

The class sat in silence, the reality of the situation sinking in. They were all familiar with danger, but knowing those already on the scene were preparing for the worst hammered in an extra bit of perspective.

"I have to go," Momo said, breaking the silence. "I know how to defuse a bomb. I need someone to help me find it."

Todoroki gave her a grateful nod before focusing back on Mic, unsure as to how or whether he'd be able to be involved.

"Shouji, Jirou, or Kouda could help with that," Midoriya said, peering at the three of them.

"I can listen for people who are trapped," Jirou said. "I think I should go."

"Ah, no," Mic said. "Your hearing is outstanding, but your attacks have too wide an area of effect. Any vibration attacks you tried to make would risk setting off the bomb, so you'd be helpless if cornered. You should stay here."

"I think it's me," Shouji said. "I can listen, clear a path, and carry people. Sorry, Kouda."

Kouda shook his head in an "it's fine" gesture.

"Okay, that's two," Mic said. "Come stand up here. We need two more."

Todoroki tried to say something, but Mic put up a dismissive hand. Momo and Shouji made their way to stand between them at the front of the room.

"Me," Tokoyami said. "We're in an enclosed space, and it's early morning, so this is ideal for me. I can move people and heavy objects, and if we encounter any of those low-level villains, I can at least keep them occupied until we get help."

"Good," Mic said. "Get up here."

"I think I should be the fourth person," Mina said. "I can melt walls and doors so people can get out faster."

"All right. This is our group," Mic said. "No objections?"

To Momo, most of the class looked liked they wanted to go along, but they didn't say anything.

Mic turned to the five students beside him. "Unfortunately, I can't go with you. My quirk is similar to Miss Jirou's- my area of effect is too uncontrollable for this situation. That means there's an extra seat on the bus. Todoroki - you don't have your license. Can I trust you to find your sister and stay out of trouble? No quirks, no fighting."

"Yes, sir," Todoroki said. He'd looked like he was about to go either way, but he was grateful to be taken along.

"All right. No time for costumes. We have to move. Someone will be by in the next twelve minutes to get the next group so, to the rest of you, be ready."

XXXXX

"Looks like there's three buildings, and the backup generator is in this one," Tetsutetsu said, pointing at his phone, which was swaying with the motion from the road. "I'm guessing they'll want us to start evacuation there?"

Thirteen nodded. "That seems most likely, yes. It's also the one where moving the people inside will be easiest."

The students from classes 1-A and 1-B were sitting in the back of the school bus as it made its way to the hospital. Thirteen had been with the B group when they'd gotten the call.

Todoroki looked at the map, sick to his stomach. The building Tetsutetsu was pointing to had the clinic and administrative offices on the ground floor, the pharmacy, blood bank, and long-term storage on a basement floor below ground, and the maternity ward and nursery on the second floor.

The backup generator was on the side of the clinic building. If it lost its connection to the other two buildings, one of which housed the ER facilities, and the other of which featured long-term care and specialty services, the hospital would lose life support.

"I'm going to start on the second floor," Todoroki said. "My sister's there and those are the people that are going to be hardest to move. We need to find some kind of personnel manifest so we can be sure we've got everyone when we do."

"Here," Momo said, rolling up her sleeve. She pulled out four long sheets of paper, a Sharpie, and a binder clip. "This is the map of the facility. As we're clearing rooms, we'll cross them out. I'm not sure we'll have time to get the names of every employee and patient, but we can at least make sure we check every area of the building."

"You're right," Todoroki said, taking the papers and looking over them. It was the same map Tetsutetsu had just been looking at on this phone.

Todoroki's ice quirk had manifested almost as soon as he'd been born. Not powerfully, but he'd breathed cold air in the middle of summer and sometimes he'd left little wet handprints wherever he went. It hadn't been until he was about three that he'd started to produce tiny sparks when he was distracted. Apparently, his brother had tried to teach him how to snap his fingers to help him control the flames more carefully. He didn't remember that part, or the part where he'd accidentally burned off one of Fuyumi's pigtails because he didn't realize there was anything dangerous about what he'd been doing.

He did remember her voice when she'd yelled at him. " _That's not okay!"_ She'd said. " _Other people aren't fireproof."_

Thirteen years later, his sister still wasn't fireproof, and neither were most of the hundreds of other people trapped in the hospital with her.

"I've been asked to stay out front," said Bondo. "I'm gluing the villains to the ground so the police can work on evacuation until the threat is over."

"Sounds good," said Honenuki, the skeletal boy from class B. "I'll start in the clinic. Most of those people are bound to be able to move by themselves."

"I'll go with you," said Kendou, and Tetsutetsu nodded.

"Yaoyorozu and I will start looking for the bomb downstairs," said Shouji. "Ashido and Tokoyami should go with Todoroki to the maternity ward upstairs. I think they'll need the most help."

"Walkie talkies," Momo said, passing one out to each of the nine students as she created them one by one. "When a room is clear, tell Bondo and he'll cross it off."

"I think that's everything," Kendou said, looking up at Thirteen. "Do we have any intel on how much time we're supposed to have?"

"None at all." The bus rolled to a stop, and Thirteen stood up. "All right everyone! We're here."

BASEMENT EXPLORATION

"There's no one around," Momo said, after going down a second hallway on the basement floor and finding it empty of people. "Where are the patients? The hospital employees?"

"You're right, we're missing something," said Suda, a gangly second-year boy with x-ray vision who had accompanied Momo and Shouji to the basement. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "HEY! Is anyone down here?"

After listening for a moment, Shouji led them to a scuffling sound in the direction of the pharmacy. It seemed there was someone locked inside a closet.

"We're in here!" came a weak voice. "We can't open the door."

"Hold on!" Suda peered through a bunch of drawers behind the counter until he found a key on a lanyard. He pushed by Momo and Shouji to unlock the door, and two pharmacists stumbled out, clutching each other's arms.

"We think there's a bomb on this floor," Momo said to the taller one. "Do you know where it could be hidden?" They'd checked the generator outside first, but it seemed, as they'd feared, that the bomb was inside.

The man nodded, blinking to clear the panic from his eyes. "No one opens long-term storage unless something needs to be fixed. I think something could go unnoticed in there."

"Take us there," she said.

The man rounded the corner and back out into the hall. Momo remembered the long-term storage from the map she'd given Todoroki and a terrible, knotted feeling began to take over her gut. She hoped it wasn't where she thought it was, but to her dismay, the pharmacist turned exactly where she'd hoped he wouldn't.

Long-term storage was, as it turned out, on the other side of the building from the backup generator. That meant, to Momo, that this wasn't just a small bomb that would interfere with the power lines running through the walls. This was a bomb large enough to rip through the entire wing and destroy the building.

"Wait," she told the pharmacists before they opened the door. "Suda?"

Suda looked up and down the length of the door, trying to find any booby traps on the other side. "We're fine," he said, and unlocked it.

The first storage room was full of older equipment and backups. A quick check showed it empty of anything explosive, but behind it was another room filled with even older, dustier equipment. Right as Momo started to check the second room, Suda caught her arm and pointed to the third and final storage room.

"There's something big in there," he said.

"It's ticking," Shouji confirmed.

Momo put down her stethoscope and followed the two boys to the door. They eased it open slowly, caution and nerves interfering with their urgency for only a moment. When the automated light flickered on, Momo let out a gasp.

Eight fifty-gallon barrels of gasoline were wired to a timer in the back of the room. This setup had enough explosive power to incinerate everyone in the building and keep blowing out through the windows and doors.

"Someone phone back to the school," she said into her walkie-talkie. "On the next group sent over here, make sure Uraraka is on the bus."

Momo walked up to the first barrel, which was wired to all of the others. At the back of the room, behind the barrels, was the timer. She looked at it, gulped, and gave the keys Suda was holding to the two pharmacists they'd found.

"Take these and open the doors to every room on this floor. Make sure there's nowhere anyone can be stuck. You have twenty-three minutes and forty seconds."

XXXXX

"At the top of the stairs, we're going to take a right," Todoroki said, taking the steps two at a time. "2-B, you're going to make a left."

The third year students were going with Aizawa to capture the escaping villains. The first and second years were dispersed through the hospital itself, letting out as many people as quickly as possible so that more help could be obtained. The group of three students running up the stairs with Todoroki, Mina, and Tokoyami were headed to the nursery. Todoroki hoped, at least, that they could find hospital personnel who knew how to move people like expectant mothers and newborn babies.

When they reached the hallway that housed the maternity ward, Todoroki pulled out his phone and opened the text message he'd gotten that morning. Room 260. He hoped it wasn't wrong of him to go straight to rescue his own sister in an emergency, but rationalized that he had to start somewhere. The feeling of doubt evaporated. It wasn't important right now.

"Who's this asshole?" Tokoyami hissed back at him, gesturing with his head at a hooded figure walking down the hall towards them.

The figure walked past as if he didn't notice they were there, or at the very least care. Todoroki reached out and grabbed the man's arm, stopping him.

"Hey! What are you doin'?" Mina spat at the man.

"I'm leavin'. You should too," he said, wrenching himself out of Todoroki's grasp and continuing towards the stairs.

In this moment, in this situation, there were a lot of things Todoroki was grateful for. The fact that Momo knew how to defuse a bomb. The fact that there was a way to get to Fuyumi when she needed him. The fact that this bus was carrying the thirty most capable people to take care of this evacuation. But, along with all of those other things, Todoroki was grateful that someone else was outside taking care of rounding up the villains who had set this in motion. He would never have been able to keep his promise to Present Mic otherwise.

Todoroki hesitated. There was little doubt in his mind that this was one of the selfish miscreants who had done this, but he didn't have time to deal with a fight.

"I got this one," Tokoyami said, grabbing the man in three places with Dark Shadow and lifting him off the ground. "I'll meet you guys back up here in a minute."

Mina gave Tokoyami an impressed thumbs-up at the quick takedown before following Todoroki to one of the patient rooms on the left side of the hallway. It was locked.

"Can you take care of this?" He added, and she nodded.

Todoroki watched Mina drop a ball of acid on the door that burned through the wood around the door handle in seconds, removing enough material that she could just pull the locking mechanism straight out of the door and push it open.

"Hello?" Came a small voice from inside.

Fuyumi was sitting up on the bed, her husband beside her. She was clutching his hand so tightly her knuckles were white, and her hair was plastered to her face with sweat. Behind the bed, two nurses were sitting, frozen in fear.

Todoroki exhaled.

He turned to Mina. "The rest of the nurses in this hall must be locked somewhere. Start opening the other doors so they can help with the evacuation." She nodded and ran off.

Todoroki rushed to the side of the hospital bed. "Is everybody okay?"

Nods from around the room as the two nurses realized he was here to help. Fuyumi reached out and hugged him, her fingernails digging into his shoulder. "I'm glad you're here."

He'd read up a little bit when he'd found out she was pregnant. If a woman felt her life was in danger, labor could stop, at least temporarily. That appeared to be what had happened. As angry as it made him that she'd been pushed this far, it was lucky. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

The nurses grabbed a wheelchair and helped Fuyumi into it. Todoroki exited the room first, looking up and down the hallway and finding two more families had been let out, Mina working on a third.

Tokoyami had returned and ran up to him. "The elevators aren't working because of the backup power. How are we supposed to manage the wheelchairs?"

Todoroki paused and took out the map Momo had given him, searching for another way down. Knowing they probably couldn't rely on any other elevators, they'd have to find a creative solution.

The 2-B students had successfully opened all of the doors in the nursery, and now a growing mass of people were filing down the stairs, carrying small, precious packages. Some of the groups, however, stopped at the top of the stairs, as some children couldn't be removed from their carts and equipment. Hospital staff was carrying portable emergency equipment as well, and while it could technically be carried down the stairs, it was risky.

Looking back at the map, Todoroki pulled out his walkie-talkie. "Honenuki, is hallway H cleared yet? Over."

"Yes it is. What's going on? Uh, over."

Todoroki flagged down Mina when she exited the next room. "Ashido, do you think you can burn a hole in the floor? Straight through, so we can pass the big stuff down?"

She almost looked offended. "Of course."

He held a hand up in apology as he held up the walkie-talkie again. "We're going to burn a giant hole through that ceiling and start passing people down through it. Is that okay? Over."

"Yeah. I'll grab some extra hands. See you soon. Over."

Todoroki looked out at the growing crowd of mothers, fathers, nurses, and family members. For every three groups that could take the stairs, there was one that would have to be maneuvered through a ten-foot drop with slow, careful coordination.

"Yaoyorozu, how much time do we have? Over," he asked into his radio.

"As of now, nineteen minutes and twenty-six seconds," came the crackling reply.

That would have to be enough.

XXXXX

"The second room is clear. We're ready to move the barrels," said the shorter of the two pharmacists. "What do you need from us next?"

It had taken almost five minutes to remove the first oil drum from the array, and there were seven left. If she wanted to get the bomb completely disarmed, she was going to have to cut that time in half for all of the next ones.

The bomb's electronics were obfuscated- random, useless wires were connected in senseless places that made it difficult to see what was important and what wasn't. It wasn't impossible by any means, but everything about this bomb was designed to be difficult to disable. She'd done it once, though, and the rest of them looked to have the wires that turned out to be vital in an identical setup.

She looked at the barrel she'd just completed and sighed. "Bondo, has the next bus from UA left yet?"

"Yeah, about two minutes ago. They're maybe three minutes out."

Momo looked back at the five hospital employees, who had been moving the equipment in the storage closet into the hallway so that they could get the oil barrels out as easily as possible.

"These barrels are each about five hundred pounds. We can't lift them. Go with Shouji upstairs, and when the next bus from UA gets here, bring the girl named Uraraka. She'll help us get these out."

When the group was gone, Momo was alone in the room with her desoldering equipment. She was faster this time, clipping and melting with only slight hesitation. When she finished the second oil drum, she checked her watch again. That one had taken three and a half minutes.

The next one would have to be that much faster.

XXXXX

"Second bus is here," came Bondo's voice. "We've got Pony, Ibara, Yanagi, and Kaibara. Over."

"Who all got here from class A? Over." Todoroki asked. Beside him, Tokoyami was struggling to keep the third wheelchair level as he lowered it and its occupant to the ground floor.

"Uh… guy who shoots tape, electric guy, the girl with brown hair that did that awesome thing with the rocks, and navel laser guy. Where should I send them? Over?"

"Tape guy and Ibara are for us, over," Honenuki told him, peering up at Todoroki through the hole in the floor.

Honenuki had already swept the ground floor and melted all of the doors. The evacuation going on downstairs now was just Kendou and Tetsutetsu leading the effort to help the people he'd freed get out and onto the buses that were taking patients to other nearby hospitals. The power to soften things seemed a bit arbitrary for a superhero, but in the hands of someone dedicated to perfection, it became a quirk worthy of the recommendation student standing before him.

"All right, I'm going downstairs," Tokoyami said. "It'll be a lot easier if Sero and Ibara pass people down to me. This is a terrible angle."

"All right. Ashido, take a quick run through this floor and make sure absolutely everybody is out who isn't here with us."

She ran off. Todoroki would have done it, but he wasn't leaving.

The two students they'd called in came thundering up the stairs and made quick work of tying off the next wheelchair so they could lower it to the floor. Todoroki and some of the fathers and nurses each grabbed a strip of tape to bear some of the weight, and Tokoyami supported from the bottom until it reached the ground. The process was exponentially easier.

When it was Fuyumi's turn, and Mina had returned confirming that the floor was clear, there were only two loads left to be passed through the hole between floors. Todoroki went downstairs to meet his sister when she made it down. She was pale and heaving.

"You guys got this?" he asked Honenuki, who nodded at him.

Todoroki put his hand on Fuyumi's shoulder as her husband wheeled her outside. He helped the paramedics load her into the back of the bus, and she squeezed his hand one last time before they pulled away. Relief washed over him. He wouldn't be with her now, but she was in good hands. He looked down and saw his own hands were shaking, but clenched his fists. Now was the time to focus.

He looked back over the front lawn of the hospital. Bondo was standing next to a pile of about twenty five mooks, including the hooded guy from earlier. The crowd of people who had been in the clinic for non-emergencies had left the area, and the hospital administration was standing in a huddle just off the edge of the property. The last few injured people were being helped onto the lawn individually by the students and the nurses, who were doing as well as they could under the circumstances to keep panic down. Kaminari and Aoyama were walking back from the second building, where Kaminari had been asked to charge bed batteries in case the power was cut. At the edge of the courtyard, four gasoline barrels were placed as far from people as possible, and Shouji was exiting the doors with a fifth.

Honenuki clapped Todoroki on the shoulder. "Second floor is 100% clear. Everybody's out. I'm headed to the third building to open up the labs and stuff. Looks like this is gonna work."

Todoroki nodded back and him. "Thanks, man. Good luck."

Todoroki checked his watch. A little over six minutes were remaining. He had to find the task at which he'd be the most useful. He could probably make the most progress if he just went with Honenuki, but he wanted to stay here, just in case. He didn't want something to happen while or because he was gone.

He headed over to Bondo to check on which areas needed clearing, map in hand.

XXXXX

Momo didn't look at her watch any more. She'd just started the second to last barrel, and time taken away from that, even a glance, was too much.

The room was almost empty. If the bomb went off now, it would damage the structural integrity of the building, but it wouldn't reach the backup generator. It didn't have the power. She was saving only the hospital now.

She reached for her screwdriver to pry open the top of the electrical box. She held it in one hand, and pried with the other. It came off in a soft 'pop', and the metal lid flew off, catching her wrist on the way down.

The scrape oozed blood, more blood than it should have. Her skin was getting thin. She didn't have much matter left to use. She should have eaten more this morning, but it was too late for regrets like that.

There were soft footsteps in the hallway. "The next one isn't ready yet, Shouji," she said, ignoring the flesh wound and beginning her snipping at the wires inside the box.

"Okay. That's not why I'm here," Todoroki said, clutching a box in his hands.

XXXXX

"Do you need these?" Todoroki asked, holding out the box of cookies. "Bondo said Rikidou sent them with Kaminari." The room was dark, but lit by a floodlamp he suspected Momo had made herself. The room reeked of gasoline.

Momo barely even looked at him before reaching for the Oreos and stuffing four of them in her mouth at once. After grabbing another handful, she held her hand in front of her and an absorbent pad flickered out, which she pressed onto her left wrist. She'd unbuttoned her jacket and part of her shirt, and her sleeves were pinned up past her elbows.

"Uraraka said to tell you she'd be down as soon as she could, but she's levitating out the couple of people left who are completely immobile."

Momo nodded, reaching for another hand of Oreos so she could make a set of pliers larger than the one she'd had. "That's fine. If we move these last two barrels out after the time's up, it shouldn't make a difference."

The irony of the situation simmered at the back of Todoroki's mind. That he was the one here when everyone else was gone.

In the last three weeks, nothing had changed between them. Nothing at all. They'd sat together in class, they'd sparred after school. They'd come close to losing a challenge in physical training, but they hadn't. They hadn't stayed up late to talk, but they'd had to study and get sleep, which was to be expected.

What might have been a crush that he'd had on her hadn't gone away, either, as he'd assumed it would.

His mother had asked him what he was going to do about her. It had been one of their few conversations to end in disagreement.

"You need to go," Momo said, having taken the cookies and put them beside her. "Thank you for bringing me these, but please leave. There is a lot of gasoline vapor in here."

"Ah. Of course," he stammered, backing out of the room awkwardly. Gasoline vapor that could cause a huge explosion if a single spark went off inside. Yep.

A few times, it had crossed his mind that the routine nature of their friendship recently was deliberate. The way she was never looking at him _too_ often, how she'd always have to do something somewhere else when they were getting along _too_ well. It could have easily been his imagination. And, of course, if she was any part of that, he was equally responsible.

He supposed awkwardness was to be expected. They were married, after all.

There were almost three minutes on the timer. Todoroki felt a deep wrongness in leaving, but, as she'd said, one wrong move and they'd both be toast. As he started up the stairs, his radio crackled.

"All of the rooms are clear. Everyone is out of the building, over," Uraraka's voice said.

"Except the, uh… boy with red hair and the girl who is working on the bomb, over," said Bondo.

"Right," Momo's voice came over. "Don't let anyone back inside until I say it's okay. No one, over."

Todoroki had reached the top of the stairs and realized he wasn't sure which of the many hallways he had turned on. He pulled out his map and found hallway H, where they'd pulled Fuyumi down, and walked down it until he reached the entrance.

"On the last barrel, over," Momo said as he stepped outside.

And now the part where he waited.

The courtyard in front of the hospital was almost silent. The UA students were standing in their little groups. Another bus was on its way from the school, but it was almost moot at this point. The hospital employees were doing checks, in as orderly a fashion as they could. The police were standing awkwardly, not yet ready to take the perpetrators, who had long since given up resisting and were sitting silently in piles behind Bondo.

The hooded man they'd encountered in the hallway was at the edge of one group. His hood had fallen off, to reveal tattoos that were squirming around his shaven head. He stared at Todoroki defiantly. This was the last one inside, Todoroki realized. The one that had stayed to make sure all the doors were locked. If he wasn't the leader, he was someone the group found responsible.

"How much time is there?" Uraraka whispered to Mina, yanking Todoroki out of his thoughts before he could approach the man.

"A minute and a half," Mina said.

It was less than that, Todoroki's watch said. A minute fifteen. Mina was just trying to be optimistic.

"I wonder if we should go in there," Uraraka said. "I don't like standing here."

"I don't either, but what would we do? There's not even enough time to get to her," Mina replied.

Todoroki knew listening to their conversation probably wasn't good for him. He stared forcefully at the front of the hospital. He inhaled. Exhaled. Inhaled again.

The radio crackled. "That's it, guys. The last one's done. The bomb is completely disabled," Momo said.

Todoroki exhaled completely for the second time that day.

There was whooping and cheering. The girls were laughing, and the hospital workers were hugging each other. One of the police officers clapped Bondo on the shoulder, releasing him from his watchman duty. The UA students high-fived and whooped.

Someone was laughing who shouldn't have been.

The previously hooded man wasn't looking at Todoroki anymore. He was just smiling to himself and the people in his group. His pleased look pushed Todoroki's wind out of him, harder than a physical blow.

"Momo, get out of there."

"Yeah, I'm heading up. Just a sec."

"NO! I think there's a second timer on that last drum. You have to move."

There was a shuffling on the other end of the line as she checked behind the last drum. "Shit!" She yelled.

That silenced the last of the UA students. Momo never cursed.

He looked at his watch. Forty-nine seconds. There was no way she'd make it up the stairs, across the building, and out in that time. It just wasn't possible.

And suddenly, he was three years old again, standing dazed on his front porch as his sister screamed, tears running down her face.

 _Other people aren't fireproof._

His feet had already started moving. "Honenuki, come back to the first building! Ashido, Aoyama, with me!"

He rushed across the courtyard and flung the front door open. Thirty-five seconds.

"Take the first stairs you see in the hallway your room was in," Todoroki said into his walkie-talkie.

Two drums of gasoline wouldn't burn through the exterior walls or the metal casing of the generator from across the basement, but the fire would fill the hallways and follow whatever paths were open. Most of the wing they evacuated would probably be damaged beyond repair.

"You need to start hyperventilating, do you understand?" He yelled.

He heard her sneakers slamming against the stairs, and then a door open. She was up to the first floor.

"What?" Twenty seconds. He started letting heat out of his left side.

"Run as fast as you can down the hallway marked H but you have to breathe really hard, okay? More than you think you need to. You have to hyperoxygenate your blood." Because soon she wouldn't be able to breathe.

At six seconds, he was almost at H. One more turn.

When his watch hit zero, he turned the corner and saw Momo halfway down the hallway. He dropped to his left knee, his right foot and hand on the ground.

The floors behind Momo ruptured, the walls buckled and caved, and the wave of heat that preceded the fires stole the oxygen from the area. As the flames just became visible, two waves of white rushed down and filled Hallway H, encasing Momo between them in a solid block of ice and redirecting the flames down other hallways and through windows leading outside.

Behind him, Aoyama and Mina dropped to the floor as the shockwave traveled through the hospital wing, peeling the floors and shaking chunks out of the ceiling.

When it stopped, the three of them sprung into action.

"This is more ice than I thought we'd need," Todoroki said. "We need Honenuki in hallway H!" He clicked the walkie-talkie.

"Roger," came the voice of the skeletal boy.

Aoyama started cutting wide slices down one side of the hallway with his laser, and Mina softened the edges with acid so the chunks could be moved away. They were making their way down the hallway at an angle.

Todoroki tried to blast the ice with a wave of heat, but it was just melting too slowly. Momo was frozen maybe twenty feet down the hall, and by the time he was able to reach her using only fire, she'd have frozen to death or suffocated. The only effect his fire had really had was melting the surface smoothly enough that he could see her somewhat.

He almost wished he couldn't see. She had maybe half a lung of air from air pockets left around her head, which she'd flooded with oxygen using her quirk, but was running out quickly. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her torso contorted with attempts at breath. She was bleeding from somewhere, but he couldn't see the cause. He reminded himself that she could be warmed up and given oxygen, that this was better than if she'd been vaporized by the blast.

He moved over to help Aoyama and Mina with the angle strategy, but he wasn't much help. He ended up just dragging away more blocks of ice between cuts. He felt just a little bit better than useless. At around the third round of this, they were about ten feet down the hallway on the left side. Mina stopped, gasped, and ran back out into the hallway, wide-eyed.

"HONENUKI!" She yelled. She fumbled at her walkie-talkie. "Where's Honenuki? We need him and a bunch of nurses or something. Yaomomo is bleeding a lot and we're not fast enough!"

Bleeding? Todoroki thought. That's the least of her problems. Unless-

He shoved past Aoyama and stepped into the ice crevasse where he could see. Todoroki gasped, and the blood rushed to his ears, drowning out the sound of Honenuki's sneakers finally making their way to the scene.

The two-foot piece of rebar had been impossible to see from the front because of the angle, but now that Todoroki had a side view, it was perfectly clear. The wall behind Momo had exploded before the ice had gotten to her, and the piece of metal had impaled her through the stomach from the right, narrowly missing her spine. It was maybe half an inch thick but burst through her torso leaving tears in her skin in three directions. Blood had completely filled the pocket left in front of her, and the salt was melting the ice around her and creeping towards the pocket around her head. The racking coughs Momo had been attempting earlier had turned into irregular spasms with little intention behind them. Even in the middle of a hospital, she had minutes at best.

And that was when Todoroki knew that he loved her.


End file.
